SDS-WAS Advisory Report presented at the 9th session of the WWRP SSC

SDS-WAS Background The SDS-WAS was established in 2007 as a joint WWRP and GAW activity in response to the interest of 40 WMO member countries to improve capabilities for more reliable sand and dust storm forecasts . The WMO SDS-WAS has been established with the objective to develop, refine and provide monitoring and prediction products that are useful In reducing the adverse impacts of SDS and to assess numerous impacts of the SDS process on society, climate and environment SDS-WAS Asian Node (hosted by China) SDS-WAS Northern Africa-Middle East-Europe Node (hosted by Spain) SDS-WAS Americas Node (hosted by Bermudas)

SDS-WAS Objectives Recently adopted in the Science and Implementation Plan 2015-2020   Perform model evaluation and inter-comparisons Transit towards high-resolution dust modelling research (up to 1 km) Study chemical and physical characterization of dust Perform dust reanalysis Dust interaction with radiation and clouds and impacts to weather and climate Studying dust impacts through selected cases Implement sufficiently mature and evaluated research SDS-WAS products into operations tailored to needs of end-user communities (aviation, health, transportation, agriculture and energy) Developing SDS user-oriented warning systems based on probabilistic ensemble predictions Developing and testing operational capabilities of dust models based on assimilated dust-related data (from lidars, satelites, ceilometers, etc.)

Activity Report Nov. 2015 - Sep 2016 New products and services Meetings, Conferences and side-events Reports On-going projects Future plans

(July 2015) WRF-Chem model seven-day dust forecasts run daily at the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Barbados (future home of the Americas node). This represented the soft launch of the CIMH Dust and Air Quality Forecast Centre (http://dafc.cimh.edu.bb/).

Visibility product (oct-2015) (Oct 2015) New product to monitor SDS. Visibility data included in meteorological observations is used as a complementary way to monitor dust events. Visibility maps published in SDS WAS RC web page show cases of visibility reduction by sand or dust to less than 5 km reported in METAR or SYNOP bulletins. Visibility maps published in SDS WAS RC NAMEE web page show cases of visibility reduction by sand or dust to less than 5 km reported in METAR or SYNOP bulletins.

Product dissemination Website: http://sds-was.aemet.es WMO GTS EUMETCast (Nov 2015) UNEPLive (May 2016) http://uneplive.unep.org Twitter (end 2016) African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development  ACMAD (?) (Nov 2015) Following its efforts to make the predictions reach all potential users and, in particular, the national meteorological and hydrological services, the Barcelona Dust Forecast Center (BDFC) started broadcast dust forecast through the EUMETCast service.

Dust forecasts from new models are collected within SDS-WAS RC NAMEE WRF-Chem-NOA (Dec 2015) SILAM-FMI (May 2016) (Dec 2015) The WRF-Chem model, daily run by the National Observatory of Athens, was included in the SDS-WAS model intercomparison system. The model simulates the emission, transport, mixing, and chemical transformation of trace gases and aerosols simultaneously with the meteorology. (May 2016) The SILAM model, daily run by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) was included in the SDS-WAS model intercomparison system. The SILAM model is a chemical transport model, suitable for global, regional and meso-scale simulations developed in FMI. (Oct 2016) The LOTOS-EUROS model, daily run by TNO (Holland), was included in the SDS-WAS model intercomparison system. LOTOS-EUROS model is used to simulate the formation and dispersion of ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants across Europe. LOTO/EUROS-TNO (Oct 2016) 11 models + 1 “ensemble”

(Feb. 2016) ECMWF-CAMS dust outputs have been shared and displayed by the WMO SDS-WAS Asian-RC web portal for a joint visualization and evaluation.

Activity Report Nov. 2015 - Sep 2016 New products and services Meetings, Conferences and side-events Reports On-going projects Future plans

Side event “The Edge of Crisis: Dust and Sand Storms" (Oct 2015) Side event “The Edge of Crisis: Dust and Sand Storms" at the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) held in Ankara in October 2015 (Oct 2015) The SDS-WAS RC NAMEE participated in the side event “The Edge of Crisis: Dust and Sand Storms" at the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), held in Ankara in October 2015,. D. Terblanche, Director of the WMO ARE, and E. Terradellas presented WMO's SDS-WAS, which could become part of a wider-UN-based system to better manage this phenomenon and its impacts.

(Oct 2015) Symposium “Celebrating Fifty Years of Sahara Dust Research on Barbados” was held at the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Barbados The symposium celebrated the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Sahara Dust in Barbados. Dr. Delany and Professor Prospero spoke about the breakthrough discovery. There were presentations from other renowned atmospheric scientists from NASA, the University of the West Indies, the University of Puerto Rico, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (Germany) and CIMH.

was held 2-5 November 2015 in Amman, Jordan The 1st Africa / Middle East Expert Meeting and Workshop on the Health Impact of Airborne Dust was held 2-5 November 2015 in Amman, Jordan organized by WMO, WHO, UNEP, EUMETSAT and the State Meteorology Agency of Spain (AEMET). The kick-off meeting of the WMO SDS-WAS Steering Committee was held in Amman, Jordan, on 6 and 7 November (Enric Terradellas, Chair) (Nov 2015) The 1st Africa / Middle East Expert Meeting and Workshop on the Health Impact of Airborne Dust was held 2-5 November 2015 in Amman, Jordan, organized by WMO, WHO, UNEP, EUMETSAT and the State Meteorology Agency of Spain (AEMET). Co-coordination of the meeting was conducted by the SDS WAS RC NAMEE. (Nov 2015) The kick-off meeting of the WMO SDS-WAS Steering Committee was held in Amman, Jordan, on 6 and 7 November, in connection with the 1st Africa / Middle East Expert Meeting and Workshop on the Health Impact of Airborne Dust. The kick-off meeting was attended by representatives of the three regional nodes and the WMO Secretariat. E. Terradellas, Technical Director of the RC NAMEE was elected chair for the next two years.

(Apr 2016) The Caribbean Aerosol-Health Network (CAHN) first meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. To improve understanding of the impacts of aerosols on the Caribbean region, with particular focus on African Dust which significantly affects air quality in the region. CAHN will be a major collaboration under the Americas Node.

(May 2016) The side event "Achieving land degradation neutrality and combating sand and dust storms for healthy planet and healthy people" was held on 26 May in Nairobi as a side event of the United Nations Environment Assembly. S. Nickovic, delivered a talk on the role of the SDS-WAS. Partners of the side event were Department of Environment, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mongolian Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism, and the Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Arabia. (May 2016) A resolution proposed by Iran and backed by Pakistan and Iraq that aims to enlist the aid of Middle East countries to tackle dust storms in the region was approved at the second UN Environment Assembly, The assembly was held in the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya on May 23-27. A resolution proposed by Iran and backed by Pakistan and Iraq that aims to enlist the aid of Middle East countries to tackle dust storms in the region was approved at the second UN Environment Assembly

Dust forecasts available on UNEP platform Dust forecasts produced by the WMO SDS-WAS Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe and the Barcelona Dust Forecast Center are available on UNEPLive, a platform managed by the United Nations Environment Program.(UNEP) Africa: http://uneplive.unep.org/region/index/AF#data_tab West Asia: http://uneplive.unep.org/region/index/WS#data_tab The aim of UNEP Live is to facilitate the exchange and sharing of latest data, information, assessments and knowledge amongst member countries, research networks, communities of practice, indigenous peoples and society, in order to keep the environment and emerging issues under review.

Participation in 2016 meeting of SAG aerosol (May 2106) Seoul-Korea PMx – Proposals: collect online PMx data from selected stations into the frame of an ad-hoc SDS-WAS observation network Establish a protocol for allowing data comparability Photometry – Proposals: Introduction of day & night observations Exploring introduction of new low-cost equipment for remote desert regions Lidar / ceilometers: Continue working with extinction profiles (lidar/photometer synergy) Exploring the use of different instruments and methodologies (May 2016) The SDS-WAS participated in the 2016 WMO-GAW SAG-Aerosol meeting was held in Seoul (Korea) presenting the dust-aerosols activities and requirements at the SDS-WAS RC NAMEE.

(Sept 2016) SDS-WAS Steering Committee meeting for global coordination of SDS was held on 20 Sep in Jeju, Korea: invited representatives of UNEP, WHO and UNCCD and discussed coordination of our work among the UN Agencies. It was agreed to build a joint plan together and extend our SDS-WAS SC by involving representatives of other UN Agencies. (Sept 2016) International Workshop on Asian dust and aerosol held in Jeju, Korea, 21 Sept., hosted by KMA. Effects of high concentration of dust aerosol in Asia: dust interacting with PBL meteorology, and the role of mineral dust in CCN activation. Substantial progress with satellite data use and dust observations, and good achievements in data assimilation studies for SDS modeling. (Sept 2016) the Asia Node SDS-WAS Steering Group meeting was held on 22-23 Sept. in Jeju, hosted by KMA. confirmed the application to build the dust operational center hosted by CMA, More focus need to be paid for dust observations and their networking (integration with GAW); It was agreed to write a white paper for dust observation requirements and modeling needs; It was decided to create a WG for data assimilation within the Asian Node.

Main goal: to coordinate actions among different UN agencies. SDS-WAS was represented by A. Baklanov (WMO). Main goal: to coordinate actions among different UN agencies. The workshop appreciated the joint efforts of UNCCD, UNEP and WMO in their coordination of activities focusing on SDS issues, in particular in writing the Global Assessment of SDS and further initiatives for elaboration of the Technical Guide for SDS (Oct 2016) International Workshop on Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) held in Istanbul 4-7 October, hosted by the Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion (CEM) and the Turkish Meteorological Service (TSMS) with technical corporation from WMO, UNEP and UNCCD. One of the main goals was to coordinate actions among different UN agencies. SDS-WAS was represented by A. Baklanov (WMO).

Activity Report Nov. 2015 - Sep 2016 New products and services Meetings, Conferences and side-events Reports On-going projects Future plans

Reports (Mar 2015) WMO/WWRP SDA-WAS Technical Report on Asian Regional Centre (Jan 2016) Airborne Dust: A Hazard to Human Health, Environment and Society, WMO Bulletin, Vol. 64 (2), 2015. (Jan 216) Barcelona Dust Forecast Center report 2015 (Nov 2016) SDS WAS RC NAMEE Activity Report 2013-2015

(Oct 2016) UNEP published the “Global Assessment of Sand and Dust Storms” report, jointly written by UNEP, WMO, and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The report, with foreword by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, has been included in the documentation of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly.

Activity Report Nov. 2015 - Sep 2016 New products and services Meetings, Conferences and side-events Reports On-going projects Future plans

RESEARCH: SDS-WAS Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe RC partners State Meteorological Agency (AEMET, Spain) Large-scale atmospheric processes driving dust mobilization over the Sahara and dust transport out of Africa: Modulation of Saharan dust export by NAFDI (Rodríguez et al., 2015) (ACP), impact of NAFDI on large-scale transport of Saharan dust and relationship to the SHL and mid-latitude Rossby waves (Cuevas et al. 2016)(ACP-Discussion) (S2S and TMR) Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC, Spain) Dust data Assimilation: new NRT quantitative satellite products (Deep-blue),and scheme based on Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (DiTomaso et al., 2016; AMT-Discussion) (DAOS) Towards high-resolution dust forecasts: non-hydrostatic NMMB/BSC-Dust and new high-resolution dust source maps (HiW) Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia (RHMSS, Serbia) Dust data assimilation: using MSG SEVIRI AOD (UK Met-Office) (DAOS) Cloud ice nucleation due to dust: cloud-aerosol interactions (WMET) High resolution dust modelling: testing the DREAM-NMME within the SDS-WAS Tehran experiment (7 km) (HiW)

RESEARCH: SDS-WAS Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe RC partners NRT evaluation of vertical dust profiles: ground- and satellite-borne lidar and last generation of ceilometers are capable to provide vertical profiles of aerosol-related variables. Binietoglou et al. (2015): dust concentration forecast by different numerical models is compared with lidar retrievals of dust mass vertical profiles from Lidar/Radiometer Inversion Code (LIRIC) algorithm. (FVR) 2. Dust forecast model intercomparison: Case study of the dust storm over Tehran on 2nd June 2014: Multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional joint project. covering collection of the available data, multi-model ensemble numerical modelling of the storm, verification of the results and identification of the benefits and main lacks of this forecast upgrade. Hunneus et al., 2016 (ACP) Forecasting the northern African dust outbreak towards Europe in April 2011: a model intercomparison (FVR)

RESEARCH: SDS-WAS Asian-RC partners The Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS) From dust to aerosol pollution and its interaction with weather and climate change: focused on 1) understanding two-way feedback mechanism of heavy aerosol pollution in China and weather processes and their relation with climate change; 2) to improve numerical prediction accuracy of strong aerosol pollution, establishing a numerical chemical-weather prediction system in NMC-China. (Liu et al., 2015; Science in China); (Zhang et al., 2015; ACP). (WMET) (HiW) The National Meteorological Center of China (NMC) NRT data in data assimilation system and forecasting result evaluation: implementation of an operational 3-D VAR data assimilation system using NRT satellite SDS index and surface observations (DAOS)

RESEARCH: SDS-WAS Asian-RC partners Improvement of NRT data in data assimilation system and forecasting result evaluation: data assimilation of SDS in the JMA global model by using Dust-RGB data from the new Japanese Himawari-8 satellite (DAOS) Dust forecast model intercomparison: SDS over Asia during spring 2013 and 2016: The results have further shown that the existing SDS forecasting models in Asian-RC, including two regional and three global models, all of them show good skills to forecast dust episodes in Asia. (FVR)

RESEARCH: SDS-WAS Americas -RC partners Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) Dust and Air Quality Forecasting in the Eastern Caribbean: The applications of the WRF-Chem modelling system at CIMH focused on coupled weather prediction/dispersion model to simulate the release and transport of constituents, especially Saharan dust transport and concentration. Examine dust radiative forcing and effects on atmospheric precipitation and dynamics. (WMET) (HiW)

Activity Report Nov. 2015 - Sep 2016 New products and services Meetings, Conferences and side-events Publications On-going projects Future plans

SDS-WAS Future Plans (1/2) (Nov 2016) WMO Publication of SDS-WAS RC NAMEE Activity Report 2013-2015. (Nov 2016) 5th Training Course on WMO SDS-WAS Products (Satellite and Ground Observation and Modelling of Atmospheric Dust): Tehran, 5-9 November 2016. (Dec 2016) Tentative deadline for DREAM dust model to be set-up and running daily at CIMH, Barbados (Americas node regional centre). (Feb 2017) Annual WMO newsletter entitled "Airborne dust bulletin”: publicize the activities of SDS-WAS, report the state-of-the-art in the science of atmospheric dust, raise awareness on the problem of SDS and promote the use of SDS-WAS products. (Oct 2017) 6thtraining course on SDS-WAS products to be held in Turkey. (2017 TBD) Routine dissemination of predicted ice nucleation (#IN) cased by dust. (2017 TBD) Phone App dust products dissemination by SDS-WAS RC NAMEE. (2017 TBD) Global SDS-WAS Steering Committee meeting in Barbados.

SDS-WAS Future Plans (2/2) (2017 TBD) Asia Node SDS-WAS Steering Group meeting in Japan. (2017 TBD) Results and actions derived from proposals submitted to competitive calls (COST -23 countries-, ERA4CS). (2017 TBD) Providing WMO SDS-WAS part (SDS observations, prediction, early warning and assessments) to the Technical Guide for SDS coordinated by UNCCD. (May 2018) 9th International Workshop on Sand / Dust storm and Associated Dustfall will be held in Tenerife. (May 2018) 2018 Meetings of SDS-WAS SC and RSG in Tenerife Concerning research activities: Continue the current on-going dust-related projects Initiate activities in long-term dust reanalysis with links to dust WCRP

Thank you