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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 ProgrammeWorld Meteorological Organization Geneva

WMO/AREP

Aerosols & Dust Severe Storms

Prediction Research &

Observations

O3

Weather Prediction & Nowcasting

Air Quality

CO2

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 ).

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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

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

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Health Impacts: Valley Fever

Endemic regions: located mainly in western hemisphereSource: Hector & Laniado-Laborin, 2002

Valley Fever spores transported by SDS storms

Number of Valley Fever cases in Arizona

Respiratory AsthmaHeart stress

Dust PM 2.5 predicted at Univ. Arizona and student absentees, Lubbock, Texas; Yin et al, 2005

Health Impacts

“…Endospores of Bacillaceae bacteria isolated from non-saline Japanese soil may be transported by dust events…”

Akinobu Echigo et al., 2003

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)

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.

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.

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.

Beijing Roof CMA Beijing Roof CMA March 20 2002March 20 2002

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.

A WMO Sand and Dust Storm SDS Warning System

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

Annual Mean Aerosol Optical Depth

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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

Many SDS Countries

OBSERVATIONS: Satellites, Aircraft and Surface Networks

NASA A-Train

CALIPSO Aerosol Lidar

Global AOD Network Long-term Sites4+ years in operation, >50% coverage, as of March 2004

Total count = 90

AERONET-LTOther

GAW/AERONET Aerosol Remote Sensing Stations

18 UTC, 7 May 2002 30-hr forecast

Forecast

European EARLINET Asian AdNet

NASA Micro-pulse Lidar Network MPLNET

LIDAR NETWORKS

Global Coordination Through WMO

GAW Aerosol Lidar Network (GALION)

Long Term Data Archives

Reanalysis

Forecast Models &Data Assimilation

Cal/Val &

Quality Assurance

Globally GriddedSDS Air Concentration

and Deposition

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.

Observations• Satellite• Aircraft• Surface(in situ, remote)

ObservationOptimization

Real Time Data Delivery

And Assimilation

Air/Surface Exchange & Emissions

Components: Integrated SDS Warning System System

Inversion

All Data Delivery

Next Step

http://salam.upc.es/wmo/

WMO/GEO Expert Meeting on an International Sand and Dust Storm Warning System

7-9 November 2007, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) 

Barcelona, Spain

Australia

Thank You