Recent months have seen unprecedented levels of dust storms in the Middle East. Hundreds of people were hospitalized because of breathing difficulties; public buildings, offices, and schools were closed; and flights were grounded. Sand and dust storms are not a new experience for the people of the region, but continuous exposure to thick blankets of dust — as seen in April and June 2022 — is quite alarming and has affected local communities and residents across the region from Syria to Iran.
Before further elaborating on the causes of sand and dust storms, it’s worth differentiating between them as two distinct and different phenomena. Often these types of events are referred to as sandstorms in the media when in fact they are dust storms, although both are made up of soil particles. In principle, soil particles can be divided into three categories: sand, silt, and…
The Middle East’s worsening dust storms are making it harder to deploy solar energy
