Jordan Journal of Physics Sand and Dust Storms (sds) Managing Guest Editor

Prof. Tareq Hussein, Department of Physics, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Dr. Ali Boloorani, Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

Dr. Sara Basart, Earth Sciences Division, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain
The rapid population growth and intensive exploitation of natural resources and the environment, leading to environmental degradation and several impacts worldwide. Sand and Dust Storms (SDS), as one of such impacts, pose a threat of a global dimension to all aspects of life on the Earth. While for some countries (regions) the impacts of SDS might be marginal, for west Asia it is “life threatening”. It is well known that SDS are emitted into the atmosphere from natural origin (mainly desert areas) and anthropogenic sources (as a result or urbanization and land degradation). It has been estimated that about 1.5 Gt of dust is emitted annually into the atmosphere. When SDS particles transported downwind, airborne dust affects regions hundreds to thousands of kilometers away. Therefore, it plays an important role everyday life affecting human health and imposing serious impacts on the environment (e.g. agriculture, marine and animal ecosystems, visibility, and climate). Due to the importance of SDS and related processes and impacts the Jordan Journal of Physics have planned to publish a special issue on SDS. The themes of the special issue are, but not limited to, the following:

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  SDS Sources identification
  
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  Mineral/biogeochemical characteristics of SDS particles
  
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  Meteorology/synoptic analysis of SDS
  
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  Numerical modeling for SDS forecasting
  
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  Remote sensing based land surface dynamic monitoring in SDS sources
  
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  Health effects and vulnerability mapping
  
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  Socio-economic impacts assessment
  
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  SDS-Environmental impacts
  
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  SDS-based as a driver for unrest and mitigations
  
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  Combat and mitigation to SDS
  

We invite submission of research articles and short communications to this special issue.

Submission is open (2nd call) June 15, 2018