1. Overview of WMO Activities on Sand and Dust Storms
Robert Stefanski
Agricultural Meteorology Division
Alexander Baklanov
Atmospheric Research & Environment Branch

2. Global Scale Sand and Dust Storm Problem
Atmospheric Aerosol Eddies NASA Animated Map: 10km Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite (GEOS-5) AOD: Red colour – Dust Aerosols

3. Summary of Sand and Dust Impacts
Human Health (asthma, infections, meningitis in Africa, valley fever in the America’s)
Agriculture (negative & positive impacts)
Marine productivity
Aviation ( air disasters)
Ground Transportation
Improved Weather and Seasonal Climate Prediction
Industry (Semi-conductor)

4. Impacts – Crops & Livestock
Loss of plant tissue and reduced photosynthetic activity as a result of sandblasting
Burial of seedlings under sand deposits
Delayed plant development
Increased end-of-season drought risk
Causing injury and reduced productivity of livestock

5. Impacts – Soil Productivity Losses
Loss of the most fertile fraction (K and P) of the topsoil and can be transported long distance
Increases soil erosion and accelerates the process of land degradation and desertification (UNCCD)

6. Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) supported by WMO World Weather Research Programme
Mission
To establish a coordinated global network of SDS research & forecasting centres and to enhance the ability of countries to deliver timely and quality sand and dust storm forecasts, observations, information and knowledge to users through an international partnership of research and operational communities

7. WMO SDS-WAS System Components
18 UTC, 7 May hr forecast
Forecast Models
NASA A-Train MODIS CALIPSO
&
Geostationary Satellite IR Obs
GAW/AERONET/SKYNET
Surface-based AOD
European PM10
GALION
Surface-based LIDAR

8. Dust forecasting systems

9. Brief WMO SDS-WAS History
2004: Beijing, China: International Symposium on SDS & WMO Experts Workshop on SDS.
2005: More than 40 Member countries indicated interest to cooperate in SDS-WAS.
2007: the 15th WMO Congress endorsed launching of the SDS-WAS.
2008: the 60th EC of WMO welcomed the establishment of the three SDS-WAS Regional Nodes.
: A series of workshops: Spain, Niger, Turkey, China, Japan, Korea, Iran, Serbia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Italy, Morocco, Jordan, ...
2014: Opening the Barcelona Dust Forecast Centre - 1st WMO Operational Dust Prediction Centre
2017: Approved the Asian Dust Forecast Centre - hosted by CMA, Beijing 2nd WMO Operational Dust Forecast Centre 9

10. SDS-WAS Regional Nodes
Regional Node for Asia, coordinated by Regional Centre hosted by the CMA (Beijing, China)
Regional Node for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe (NA-ME-E), coordinated by Regional Centre as a consortium of the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS)
Regional Node for Pan-America hosted by the Arizona University (USA) and the Caribbean Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Barbados (in progress).

11. SDS-WAS Regional Nodes
3 Regional Nodes, 15 organizations providing forecast
Regional coordination: Regional Steering Group (for Regional Nodes)
Global Coordination: Global Steering Committee
Strategic Plan: SDS-WAS Science & Implementation Plan for
Implementation: Trust Fund through WMO WWRP/GAW
Pan-American
Asian
N Africa- Mid East-Europe

12. SDS-WAS Regional Node for West Asia
Joint WMO-UNEP: Report on the Establishment of WMO SDS-WAS Regional Node for West Asia (2013)
Needs: Higher resolution SDS forecast and observations

13. Global Assessment of Sand and Dust Storms

14. WMO Airborne Dust Bulletin
En:  Fr:  Ar:  Ch: 

15. SDS-WAS Capacity Building
TRAINING COURSES
Accra
Addis-Ababa
Ankara
Antalya **
Barcelona **
Casablanca **
Istanbul
Muscat **
Niamey
Ouagadougou
VISITORS FROM
Iraq
Romania
Turkey

16. SDS-WAS Dissemination
WMO SDS-WAS websites and reports:
SDS-WAS Regional Nodes and Operational Forecasts:
for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe:
for Asia:
for the Americas:
Operational Barcelona Center:
WMO SDS-WAS Video
Protecting People from Sand and Dust Storms

17. Potential Agricultural Applications of a SDS-WAS
Tactical Applications (Warnings)
Near-term alerts for agricultural communities to take preventive action such as
harvesting maturing crops (vegetables, grain),
sheltering livestock, and
strengthening infrastructure (houses, roads, crop storage) for the storm.

18. Potential Agricultural Applications of a SDS-WAS
Strategic Applications
Improved SDS climatologies for long-term planning for agricultural communities such as:
Planning windbreaks and shelterbelts (direction, size, etc)
Planning infrastructure and crops
Post-storm crop damage assessments.

19. Potential Agricultural Applications of a SDS-WAS
Research Areas
Forecasting locust movement
Improving Soil / Wind Erosion and Land Degradation Models
Plant and animal pathogen movement and the relationship of SDS to disease outbreaks
Archive of SDSWAS products (Forensic Use)

20. Sugarcane Rust (June 1978) Cameroon to Dom. Rep.
Coffee Leaf Rust (1970) Angola to Bahia, Brazil
Wheat stem Rust (1969) S. Africa to Australia
Source: Brown and Hovemoller Science. July

21. Other Diseases Foot and Mouth Disease (livestock)
Soybean Rust (South America to North America)
Wheat Stem rust (ug99)
Policy makers need to know source of disease outbreaks (airborne or human transport) to take actions to minimize risk

22. Final Thoughts on SDSWS
Components of Effective Warning Systems
Monitoring
Forecast
Advisory
Potential Products should include
Areal Extent
Severity
Duration
Potential Impacts

23. Final Thoughts on SDS-WAS
Other useful products/information:
Weather Patterns associated with SDS
Meso-scale features that ignite storms
Vertical Data useful
Archives of data and forecast products
Group models by capability for users
For operational public warning systems, model output are guidance not end-Products (Current Wx Forecasting)
Need another level (Met Services?) between Models and Users

24. Thank you