
DustClim
Dust Storms Assessments for the development of user-oriented Climate Services
DustClim produces and delivers an advanced dust regional model reanalysis covering the satellite era (since 2000) of quantitative aerosol information. It develops dust-related services tailored to specific socio-economic sectors.
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There is currently a very limited integration of dust information into practice and policy.In this context, DustClim provides reliable information on sand and dust storms trends and current conditions, and develops dust impact assessment pilot studies for three key economic sectors: air quality, aviation and solar energy.
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The DustClim reanalysis is of unprecedented high-resolution (10km x10km)and assimilates satellite products over dust source regions with specific dust observational constraints.
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The accuracy of the DustClim’s products are evaluatedusing an exceptional wide variety of observations.

About
What is the DustClim project about?
Sand and dust storms can be a major threat to life, health, property, environment and economy in many countries. There is an increasing need for accurate sand and dust information and predictions to support early warning systems, and preparedness and mitigation plans. DustClim produces and delivers an advanced dust regional model reanalysis covering the satellite era (since 2000) of quantitative aerosol information. It develops dust-related services tailored to specific socio-economic sectors. Thereby it will make a major step forward in the way sand and dust storms affect society, since these services enable to integrate dust information into practice and policy.
DustClim project structure: Dust forecast and observations together with stakeholders’ interests will be the base of the design of the dust-related climate services for aviation, solar energy and air quality.
Highlights
- There is currently a very limited integration of dust information into practice and policy. In this context, DustClim provides reliable information on sand and dust storms trends and current conditions, and develops dust impact assessment pilot studies for three key economic sectors: air quality, aviation and solar energy.
- The DustClim reanalysis is of unprecedented high-resolution (10km x10km) and assimilates satellite products over dust source regions with specific dust observational constraints.
- The accuracy of the DustClim’s products are evaluated using an exceptional wide variety of observations.
Keywords / hashtags
Keywords: Dust; reanalysis; aviation; solar energy; air quality
Hashtags: @Dust_Barcelona; #COSTinDust, #wmo #DustClim
Potential societal impacts
DustClim aims to impact a variety of sectors and communities by benefitting them both socially (improved quality of life) and economically (improved resource management). It creates applied products tailored to the needs of specific sectors whose activities are highly impacted by sand and dust storms such as:
- Solar power generation sector.
- Public health, air quality assessment and management agencies.
- Air traffic management.
A well-evaluated high-resolution dust dataset can be applied to earth system studies to identify the impact of dust on weather, climate and ecosystem, and weather/chemistry forecast.
The role of JPI Climate
There is an increasing interest in accurate dust information because the substantial adverse impacts upon life, health, property, economy and other strategic sectors. Nowadays, research and operational centers are providing mature dust products that are ready to be transformed into services. JPI Climate provides us with the perfect framework to design a first and unique set of dust-oriented services considering the experiences of climate community. We anticipate that JPI Climate will support us with the dissemination of the project’s results by introducing aerosols (and dust in particular) as the topic of discussion in climate audiences that currently only is considering meteorological parameters.
Project leader
I am Dr Sara Basart (Earth Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, sara.basart@bsc.es). My main research background covers atmospheric composition and air quality modelling. I am the scientist in charge of the WMO SDS-WAS Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe. ERA4CS is giving me the opportunity to contact climate services experts from other projects globally. It enables me to incorporate previous experiences in the design and visualisation of new user-oriented dust products and in the strategies to engage new user communities.
Project consortium
Finnish Meteorological Institute
Department of Earth systems science and environmental technologies
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
The State Meteorological Agency
The DustClim consortium is formed by a multidisciplinary group of international scientific experts on aerosol measurements (CNR-DTA/IMAA, CNRS-LISA), aerosol modelling (BSC, CNR-DTA/ISAC), and dust impacts and services (AEMET, FMI, CNR-DTA/ISAC).
BSC, the Spanish National Supercomputing facility, is coordinating the overall project and will develop the dust reanalysis using the in-house NMMB-MONARCH model. AEMET, the Spanish Meteorological State Agency, is leading the user engagement and dissemination activities of the DustClim project. CNR-DTA, Italy, together with CNRS-LISA, France, will coordinate the dust observational work and the model evaluation. FMI, Finland, will lead and coordinate the generation of new socio-economic dust products.
End users of DustClim products are expected to be used by solar power plant operators (as DLR and EnBW), air traffic managers (EUROCONTROL), air quality stakeholders (INERIS, UNEP) and epidemiological experts (WHO).
Documents
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News & Events
Parent programme
ERA4CS
European Research Area for Climate Services
ERA-NET Cofund for Climate Services - This ERA-NET Consortium has been designed to boost the development of efficient Climate Services in Europe, by supporting research for developing better tools, methods and standards on how to produce, transfer, communicate and use reliable climate information to cope with current and future climate variability.
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partners
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