Sand and dust storms can severely impact flight safety due to their adverse effects on visibility, leading to flight delays, cancellations, or rerouting. Moreover, dust and sand ingestion into aircraft engines may cause reductions in power to the extent of complete engine failure. These have significant mid- to long-term implications for engine and aircraft maintenance, airport operations and resilience, and flight route planning and optimization. 

Accurate, reliable information about sand and dust storms gives pilots the tools they need to operate flights safely and efficiently worldwide. It also serves as a mitigation strategy to reduce dust-induced impacts in airports located in dust-prone areas, where frequent visibility reduction leads to the implementation of particular protocols for landing and take-off, as well as the modification of the applied flight management strategies.

We collaborate with aviation operator Rockwell Collins providing short-term forecasts of sand and dust storms from the Barcelona Dust Regional Center, the WMO’s Regional Meteorological Center specialized on Atmospheric Sand and Dust Forecast for Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Reliable forecasts can help predict situations of low visibility and can also be used as flight planning tools to ensure that the company makes the best decisions to improve safety and on-time performance.