Investigation of the spatio-temporal variations in atmosphere thickness pattern of Iran and the middle east with special focus on precipitation in Iran

In this study, Geopotential Height (between 500 and 1000 hPa) and precipitation data were obtained from the NCEP/NCAR and IRIMO (Iran Meteorological Organization) for 60 years (1950-2010), respectively. Descriptive features of Atmospheric Thickness (hereafter AT) were calculated and analyzed by using the Mann-Kendall method. The results showed that the maximum AT was recorded in summer because of the dominance of the dynamic, hot subtropical high pressure. Furthermore, upper latitudes experienced more variations in terms of AT. The trend of variations showed that AT has significantly increased in recent years. Further, Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea experienced a more measurable increase in AT. On the other hand, AT had a declining trend over northern parts of Iraq and Iran, but it failed to be statistically considerable. The trend of AT had numerous variations over western parts of Iran, northwestern parts of Iraq, central and eastern parts of Turkey, and a large area of Syria. AT analysis of Iran's precipitations showed that patterns in the Sea Level Pressure were caused by East Mediterranean, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia low pressures and the high pressures that were located in Europe and Kazakhstan. In addition, in upper-air (500 Hpa), the patterns were influenced by high Mediterranean trough and blocking phenomenon that come from higher latitudes.