Summary

The United Nations general assembly proclaimed 12th July as the International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms. To celebrate this event, we will host on 15 July 2025, from 15 to 16:15 CEST a special webinar with a round table of experts on sand and dust storms. The year's topic will be improving dust forecasts through satellite observations. Please find below the agenda and the speakers of the webinar (subject to small changes):

Welcome and introduction to the webinar:  Emanuele Emili (BSC) and Sara Basart (WMO)

• The use of satellite observations in the CAMS dust forecasts - Melanie Ades (ECMWF)
• Impact of NOAA-20 VIIRS assimilation on mineral dust predictions - Emanuele Emili (BSC)
• Mineral dust retrievals with MetOP IASI - Sophie Vandenbussche (Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy)
• Satellite based neural network predictions of Saharan dust: DustNet - Trish Nowak (Exeter University)
• Special talk: SDS warnings in Africa - Amadou Diakite (Mali Météo)

Round table: Questions and Answers

Closing:

Ana Vukovic (Chair of the WMO SDS-WAS NAMEE node, University of Belgrade)

Slobodan Nickovic (Vice-Chair of the WMO SDS-WAS NAMEE node, Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia)