A New Approach for Sand and Dust Storm Monitoring Using Satellite Data

The aim of the current study is to monitor sand and dust storm events, which are one of the key environmental apprehensions over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, using MODIS satellite data. A new approach, Saudi Dust Detection Index (SDDI), is presented based on spectral characteristics of sand and dust features to monitor SDS events. The index-based results are validated by using MODIS combined dark target (DT) and deep blue (DB) aerosol optical depth (AOD) product and AOD product from AERONET station data. The accuracy of the SDDI is determined by using probability of false-positive detection (POFD), probability of correct positive detection (POCD), and algorithm accuracy approach. Results of the study show that SDDI can identify SDS events based on various threshold values (between 0 and 0.5) with high accuracy. This research is at a preliminary stage, and the future objectives are further improvements and validation of the developed index.