Together with the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), we host the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center, providing timely and quality predictions of atmospheric dust concentrations useful for the aviation sector.

Drastic reduction in visibility, even close to zero in some circumstances, is likely to accompany dust and sand storms. Besides, dust and sand ingestion into aircraft engines may cause reductions in power to the extent of complete engine failure. Short-term forecasts of sand and dust storms can be used as flight planning tools by aviation users to ensure that they can operate safely and efficiently.

Our dust forecasts are based on the in-house atmospheric-chemistry MONARCH model, developed by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in collaboration with the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).

Dust models are developed for short to the medium-term prediction of mineral dust events worldwide and for regional climate modelling. Models are essential to complement dust-related observations, understand the dust processes and predict the impact of dust on the surface concentrations of particulate matter.