About the Workshop

The Second Capacity Building Workshop on Sand and Dust Storms: Analysis and Modelling in the Arab Region was held in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on 28–29 October 2025.

The workshop focused on strengthening regional capacities in monitoring, analysing, modelling and forecasting sand and dust storms, while promoting regional collaboration, scientific knowledge exchange and practical applications.

The two-day programme combined technical presentations, discussions and hands-on training covering key scientific and operational aspects of sand and dust storm monitoring and prediction.

Workshop Highlights

The workshop programme addressed a range of scientific and operational topics, including:

• Capacity building for SDS monitoring
• Review of sand and dust storm fundamentals
• Monitoring and tracking sand and dust storms using multiple remote sensing instruments
• Prediction of potential dust events
• Geographic Information Systems for analysing and monitoring dust and sandstorm events
• Regional collaboration and the SDS science-policy interface
• Sand and dust storms and climate change
• Evaluation of WRF-Chem simulations
• Operational dust models
• Evaluation of multi-model products
• Hands-on use of SDS web platforms

Workshop Documents

Workshop-related documents and supporting materials are available below.