The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning System:

1. The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning System: Helping Society Reduce Risk Through Research and Forecasts Leonard Barrie, Director & Slobodan Nickovic, Scientific Officer Atmospheric Research and Environment Programme World Meteorological Organization Geneva SDS Workshop Seoul 7 August 2007

2. Severe Storms Air Quality WMO/AREP Weather Prediction & Nowcasting O3 CO2 Prediction Research & Observations Aerosols & Dust

3. Operational Global Aerosol Observations Are Coming:So Far Only In Research Mode A best estimate of the global distribution of annual average tropospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) compiled by combining data from six satellites (operating for limited periods between 1979 and 2004). Observations for a region were selected using ground- based AOD observations as guidance ( courtesy of S. Kinne MPI, Hamburg, Germany ).

4. SDS Impacts • Human Health (Asthma, infections, Meningitis in Africa, Valley Fever in the America’s) • Aviation ( air disasters) • Ground Transportation • Improved Weather and Seasonal Climate Prediction • Agriculture (negative & positive impacts) • Marine productivity SDS Workshop Seoul 7 August 2007

5. Meningitis occurrence under dusty weather conditions Sahel region: within the meningitis epidemics area BSC DREAM model – 48 years of dust & weather reanalysis (Perez et al., 2007) Opportunity to study possible [dusty weather]  [meningitis]correlation

6. Health Impacts: Valley Fever Valley Fever spores transported by SDS storms Number of Valley Fever cases in Arizona Endemic regions: located mainly in western hemisphere Source: Hector & Laniado-Laborin, 2002 SDS Workshop Seoul 7 August 2007

7. Dust PM 2.5 predicted at Univ. Arizona and student absentees, Lubbock, Texas; Yin et al, 2005 Health Impacts Respiratory Asthma Heart stress

8. Sample filter collected during African dust event in the US Virgin Islands Griffin et al., 2003 Transcontinental Transport of Micro-organisms Saharan dust carries bacteria and fungi across the Atlantic • 10,000 microbes/(g of soil) • 30 percent of the bacteria isolated from airborne soil dust are known pathogens, able to affect plants, animals, or humans (Griffin et al., 2003) “…Endospores of Bacillaceae bacteria isolated from non-saline Japanese soil may be transported by dust events…” Akinobu Echigo et al., 2003

9. Impacts on Agriculture A Chinese farmer walks amid a heavy sand storm in Minqin County, northwest of China's Gansu Province April 10, 2006. A strong sandstorm hit northwest China on Monday, killing one person in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and compelling dozens of trains to halt for for safety reasons. 330,000-ton sand fell on Beijing. Sand covered about one-eighth of China from April 14 to 18 and about 330,000 tons of sand fell in Beijing on Sunday night.

10. SDS IMPACTS: Dust and Tropical Storms New evidence for a relationship between Atlantic tropical cyclone activity and African dust outbreaks Evan et al., 2006 JRL. Increased % of dust cover in the Eastern Atlantic has a decreased number of tropical cyclones. A hypothesis: Cyclogenesis and cyclone evaluation is reduced in the presence of sand and dust aerosol.

11. Saharan dust, rich in nitrogen, iron and phosphorus, helps to fertilize the huge plankton blooms that occur in the tropical eastern Atlantic. MODIS satellite true colour image of dust storm over tropical North Atlantic Ocean, March 2004.

12. Beijing Roof CMA March 20 2002 A WMO Sand and Dust Storm SDS Warning System DUST • WWRP Sand and Dust Storm Project Initiated in 2005 • ~45 WMO Members are involved • ~12 research or operational forecasts are available • 2006 Shanghai SDS group resolved to focus on global coordination led by WMO. Annual Mean Aerosol Optical Depth • Impacts on: human health, long range disease transmission, aviation, agriculture, • Programmes in WMO exist to link a Sand and Dust Storm Warning System with stakeholders (e.g. GAW, WWW, WCP, Space, DPM) • Barcelona November 2007: A WMO-GEO International Experts Meeting on SDS Implementation

13. Objective Of The WMO SDSWS • To enhance the ability of participating countries to establish and improve systems for forecasting and warning to suppress the impact of SDS By • Establishing a coordinated global network of SDS forecasting centers delivering products useful to a wide range of users in understanding and reducing the impacts of SDS SDS Workshop Seoul 7 August 2007

14. Many SDS Countries

16. OBSERVATIONS: Satellites, Aircraft and Surface Networks Forecast 18 UTC, 7 May 2002 30-hr forecast CALIPSO Aerosol Lidar GAW/AERONET Aerosol Remote Sensing Stations NASA A-Train

17. LIDAR NETWORKS NASA Micro-pulse Lidar Network MPLNET European EARLINET Asian AdNet Global Coordination Through WMO GAW Aerosol Lidar Network (GALION)

18. Components: Integrated SDS Warning System System All Data Delivery Cal/Val & Quality Assurance Long Term Data Archives Globally Gridded SDS Air Concentration and Deposition Reanalysis • Observations • Satellite • Aircraft • Surface • (in situ, remote) Real Time Data Delivery And Assimilation Applications - Better Weather Forecasts - SDS Air Quality Warnings - SDS Agriculture Products - SDS Health Research - Marine Ecosystem Impacts - SDS Aviation Warnings - SDS Surface Transport Warnings - etc. etc. Forecast Models & Data Assimilation Observation Optimization Inversion Air/Surface Exchange & Emissions

19. Next Step WMO/GEO Expert Meeting on an International Sand and Dust Storm Warning System 7-9 November 2007, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)  Barcelona, Spain http://salam.upc.es/wmo/

20. Thank You Australia