23 to 27 October 2017 / Istanbul, Turkey
The Workshop and training on dust observation and related initiatives were jointly organised in Istanbul supported by the Turkish government through the Directorate for Combating Desertification (CEM). The first part, with the format of a conference and with simultaneous English-Arabic-Turkish translation addressing ca. 80 participants. Topics covered included climate and drought implication of dust, variability of dust outbreaks, dust modelling and in particular the use of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) as a privileged tool to monitor and forecast dust concentration around the world. Another session was devoted to health and agriculture, plus related socio-economic activities. The second part of the week focused on training on dust observation and modelling, with the participation of about 20 students, mainly from Turkish Universities and Teheran – the site of the previous event in the series.
The 9th international workshop on sand and dust storms was announced for 22-24 May 2018 (Tenerife, Spain) where more than 200 experts and users are expected.