Background
In view of the demand of many national meteorological services and the good results obtained by the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS), in 2013, the first WMO "Regional Specialized Meteorological Center with activity specialization on Atmospheric Sand and Dust Forecast (RSMC-ASDF)" was created in Barcelona (Spain). This WMO Operational Center started operations in March 2014. In May 2017, the second RSMC-ASDF was established in Beijing (China) and began operations.
The objective of the WMO Barcelona Dust Operational Center is to generate and distribute operational dust predictions for Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The reference model for providing operational dust forecasts to the Center is the MONARCH model, which is developed and maintained by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
