A Dusty Atmospheric River Brings Floods to the Middle East
| dc.contributor.author | Dezfuli, Amin | |
| dc.contributor.author | Bosilovich, Michael G. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Barahona, Donifan | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-10-22T19:58:25Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-12-01 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Torrential rainfall and rapid snowmelt in April 2017 caused deadly floods in northwestern Iran. An atmospheric river (AR), propagating across the Middle East and North Africa, was found responsible for this extreme event. The snowmelt was triggered by precipitation and warm advection associated with the AR. Total satellite-based rainfall for April 2017 was moderately below normal, suggesting that a heavy flood can happen during dry years. The AR was fed by moisture from the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Despite its adverse societal consequences, this event was beneficial to the recovery of the desiccating Lake Urmia. The impacts of this AR were not limited to flooding; it also facilitated dust transport to the region. This distinct characteristic of the ARs in the Middle East is attributed to major mineral dust sources located along their pathways. This event was reasonably predicted at 7-day lead time, crucially important for successful early warning systems. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This study was supported by the GlobalModeling and Assimilation Office(GMAO) Core funding, provided underNASA's Modeling, Analysis and Predic-tion (MAP) program. The authors wouldlike to appreciate constructive discussionswith members of the National ClimateAssessment (NCA) group at GMAO,particularly Allison Collow, as well asinputs and supports from Andrea Molod,Nathan Arnold and Robert Lucchesi ofGMAO and Martin Ralph of UCSD.Also, comments from the two reviewers,Deniz Bozkurt and Mehry Akbary, werevery valuable. | |
| dc.description.uri | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2021GL095441 | |
| dc.format.extent | 9 pages | |
| dc.genre | journal articles | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.13016/m2bvst-mihm | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Dezfuli, Amin, Michael G. Bosilovich, and Donifan Barahona. “A Dusty Atmospheric River Brings Floods to the Middle East.” Geophysical Research Letters 48, no. 23 (2021): e2021GL095441. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095441. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095441 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11603/40579 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | AGU | |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC GESTAR II | |
| dc.rights | This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law. | |
| dc.rights | Public Domain | |
| dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ | |
| dc.subject | dust | |
| dc.subject | extreme events | |
| dc.subject | flood | |
| dc.subject | precipitation | |
| dc.subject | atmospheric river | |
| dc.subject | Iran | Middle East | |
| dc.title | A Dusty Atmospheric River Brings Floods to the Middle East | |
| dc.type | Text | |
| dcterms.creator | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3274-8542 |