Int. J., Vol. x, No. x, 200x 1 Copyright © 200x Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Evaluation of dust sources in Iran through remote sensing and synoptical analysis Omid Esmaili * Graduate Student of environmental engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology. Environment and Water Research Center (EWRC), Iran. omid.esmaili@gmail.com E-mail: *Corresponding author Massoud Tajrishy Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology. Environment and Water Research Center (EWRC), Iran. E-mail: tajrishy@sharif.ir Peyman Daneshkar Arasteh Assistant Professor, Water and Irrigation Engineering Department, IK International University. Environment and Water Research Center (EWRC), Iran. E-mail: arasteh@ikiu.ac.ir Abstract: Mineral dusts, as the most important type of aerosols, play an important role in climate forcing and terribly affect human health, living in the vicinity of large persistent emission sources; especially located in the arid or hyper arid regions of Middle Eastern countries like Iran. In this paper, we systematically examine the TOMS satellite absorbing aerosol product (AI) over a 25-year period (1979–2004) for the evidence of local persistent dust sources, and simultaneously evaluate the most related synoptical parameters to dust emission derived from data records of more than 150 synoptical weather stations located all around the country. The TOMS satellite data show that on a global scale the dominant sources of mineral dust are mainly located in the vicinity of salt/dry lakes or large basins of internal drainage which are assumed to be very prone sources of dusts. Keywords: Iran; Mineral dust; Aerosols; TOMS; Synoptical parameters Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Esmaili, O., Tajrishy, M. and Arasteh , P.D. (200x) ‘Evaluation of dust sources in Iran through remote sensing and synoptical analysis’, Int. J., Vol. x, No. x. Biographical notes: Omid Esmailli received BS in Civil Engineering from University of Tehran, (Iran), in 2004 and currently is a graduate student of M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering at Sharif University of Technology. His research areas are remote sensing and dust detection, remote sensing in hydrology and water resources, drought research, mathematical modelling and image processing. During BS, he was awarded for being the second place in the international student competition held by American Concrete Institute at 2004. Dr. Arasteh received his PhD from Tarbiat Modarres University (Iran) in the area of irrigation and drainage engineering. He joined the I.K. International University in October 2005 as an Assistant Professor to work in Irrigation and Water Engineering Department. He works on the Hamun hydrological characteristics and its minimum water requirements. His expertise is numerical modelling and application of remote sensing in hydrology. Dr. Tajrishy joined to Sharif University of Technology (Iran) in 1995 as Assistant Professor of Water and Environmental Engineering. He is currently the head and Associate Professor of Water and Environmental Engineering Department. He is also the head of Environment and Water Research Centre (EWRC). He works on wetlands hydrology, surface water management and water quality impact assessment.