Regional dust-impacted areas originating from eastern Iran identified via visual interpretation of MODIS Terra/Aqua imagery (2000–2023)
Description
This dataset contains polygon features representing dust-impacted areas originating from eastern Iran and affecting parts of Southwest Asia between 2000 and 2023. Dust plumes were identified through visual interpretation of sub-daily MODIS Terra/Aqua true-color composite (RGB) imagery using NASA’s EOSDIS Worldview platform. On-screen digitizing in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment was used to delineate the spatial extent of each dust event based on plume dispersion from identified dust hotspots. To enhance temporal accuracy, imagery from both Terra (~10:30 local time) and Aqua (~13:30 local time) satellites was used, improving detection during daylight hours. Spatial and temporal clustering of adjacent dust hotspots was performed to group them into individual dust events. For multi-day events, the largest visible extent, captured before plume dissipation, was selected as the final footprint. Each polygon in the dataset is linked to metadata attributes, including the date of occurrence, total affected area, and a unique event ID corresponding to the clustered dust hotspots. The data are provided in standard GIS-compatible formats and include spatiotemporal attributes suitable for environmental, climatological, and hazard-related analyses.
Files
Steps to reproduce
1. Identify dust event dates Use the dust hotspot database developed by Darvishi Boloorani et al. (2024) to determine the dates and locations of dust events in eastern Iran between 2000 and 2023. Reference: Darvishi Boloorani, A., Nasiri, N., Soleimani, M., Papi, R., Amiri, F., Neysani Samany, N., ... & Al-Hemoud, A. (2024). A new approach to dust source mapping using visual interpretation and object-oriented segmentation of satellite imagery. Applied Computing and Geosciences, 23, 100182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acags.2024.100182 2. Access MODIS Terra/Aqua imagery Open NASA’s EOSDIS Worldview web application (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/) and load true-color composite (RGB) MODIS Terra (~10:30 AM) and Aqua (~1:30 PM) imagery for the identified dust event dates. 3. Visually interpret dust plumes Visually inspect the imagery for dust plumes originating from known hotspot locations. Use both satellites to maximize temporal coverage and capture persistent dust activity. 4. Digitize dust-impacted areas Using a GIS environment (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS), digitize the visible dust plume extents as polygons. For multi-day events, select the maximum observable extent before dissipation. 5. Cluster dust hotspots into dust events Apply spatial and temporal clustering to group adjacent dust hotspots into single events. Assign unique IDs to each cluster. 6. Attribute assignment Populate the GIS attribute table with relevant metadata, including: - Date of the event - Total area affected - Cluster ID - Associated MODIS pass (Terra, Aqua, or both) 7. Export data Save the final outputs in standard GIS-compatible formats such as Shapefile (.shp), GeoJSON (.geojson), or KML (.kml), including all attribute fields. Note: In regions where a pre-existing dust emission hotspot database is unavailable, users can simultaneously identify dust hotspots and impacted areas through direct visual interpretation of MODIS Terra/Aqua true-color composite imagery. Dust hotspots can be manually recorded based on visible plume origins, which typically occur in arid landscapes with low soil moisture, sparse vegetation cover, and highly erodible surfaces. These manually identified dust hotspots can then be clustered and linked to the corresponding dust-impacted area polygons during digitization.