International day of combating sand and dust storms丨China’s practice and plan shared to the globe

Sand and dust storms (SDS) present a formidable and wide-spread challenge to achieving sustainable development. They have become a serious global concern in recent decades due to their significant impacts on the environment, health, agriculture, livelihoods, and socio-economic well-being. SDS are an essential element of the Earth's natural bio-chemical cycles, but are also caused in part by human activities, including unsustainable land management and water use. In turn, sand and dust storms contribute to climate change and air pollution. 

July 12 marks International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms. It is an occasion to reinforce the awareness of SDS prevention and take concerted action worldwide.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) attaches great importance to conducting the work of Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (BEIJING) for Atmospheric Sand and dust storm forecasting (RSMC-ASDF BEIJING) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and scored a series of fruitful results.

In 2025, CMA upgraded its independently developed sand and dust storm numerical weather prediction (NWP) system (hereinafter referred to as the System) to CMA-CW, achieving multiple technological breakthroughs. By introducing 3DVar technology, the System has integrated ground observation and satellite remote sensing data. Driven by the domestically developed CMA-MESO model, it is characterized by horizontal resolution enhanced to 15 km with 31 vertical levels, output at 1-hour interval, and forecasting efficiency up to 7 days.

Through the "China-Japan-Korea + X" multilateral mechanism, CMA has established a sand and dust storm joint prevention and control system with countries including Mongolia and Kazakhstan. This initiative is driving forward deeper collaboration in data sharing, joint monitoring, forecasting, as well as early warning.

CMA is also focused on establishing cross-border sand dust and dust monitoring and forecasting for upstream source regions. This enables real-time tracking of sandstorm origins (e.g., the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, deserts in Central Asia) and provides 12-hour warning capabilities.

In 2023, CMA and the National Center of Meteorology of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a bilateral intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on meteorological science and technology cooperation, marking the outset of China-UAE collaboration on sand and dust storm disaster prevention into a new phase of cooperation.

The National Meteorological Centre (NMC) of CMA has also conducted technical exchanges with its counterpart of UAE in 2025, reaching important consensus on enhancing sand and dust storm monitoring and early warning capacity building, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in the sand and dust storm domain, and others.

To enhance China's capabilities in sand and dust storm monitoring, early warning, and ecological governance, NMC and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) have deepened collaboration since 2022. Focusing on core areas including data sharing, technical exchanges, sand and dust storm forecasting/warning, impact assessment, and ecological benefit evaluation of desertification control, both sides jointly conducted field surveys in key sandstorm source regions such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. These efforts have enabled the precise identification of source region characteristics, transport patterns, and impact mechanisms, thus effectively advancing sand and dust storm disaster prevention and ecological governance processes.

In 2017, CMA was certified as RSMC-ASDF BEIJING, together with WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center in Spain, becoming 2 dust storm warning and forecasting centres globally.

Since 2021, CMA has continued to deepen its cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on sand and dust storm monitoring and early warning, promoting the construction of nodes for the GCC Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS).

RSMC-ASDF Beijing has formed a dust meteorological service product system covering Asia, Europe, and Africa through FENGYUN (FY) meteorological satellites data sharing, 3DVar technology, and dust product R&D. It has established a joint sand and dust monitoring mechanism with Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, India, and other main Members of the SDS-WAS. And it has also established a cross-border dust transport pathway database and consistently produces forecasts for total amount of sand and dust, surface dust concentration, the optical thickness at 550nm, and dry (wet) deposition every 3 hours.

To further implement the United Nations (UN)' Early Warnings for All (EW4ALL), CMA has developed the Belt and Road sand and dust storm data service platform. By integrating data from multiple satellite sources, such as FY-4 and Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), ground observations, and NWP models, the Platform enables real-time monitoring and sharing of dust storm dynamics in source regions such as the Sahara Desert, Central Asia, and the Mongolian Plateau. From March 10 to 11, 2025, a large-scale sandstorm swept across Mongolia and northern China, which was successfully monitored and forecasted by RSMC-ASDF Beijing.

In September, 2025, the 11th Conference of WMO SDS-WAS and International Sandstorm Academic Symposium will be held in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China.