FAQ

The European Data Protection Law changed on May 25th, 2019 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. We respect the information we hold on you and take its security very seriously. We keep your data (name, institution and email address) secure and never share this information with any organisation outside the Center. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and the Meteorological State Agency of Spain (AEMET), who host the Center’s mailing list, published corresponding Legal Notices on their respective websites.

• BSC Legal Notice
• AEMET Legal Notice

You can read the Privacy Notice on their respective websites to give you more information on the data we hold on you, and your new rights under GDPR. Should you want to update your contact details or unsubscribe from the mailing list send us the request to the Center’s Contact. 

The WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center supports a model intercomparison, which is based on data files daily exchanged by partners of the region. The archive of the numerical Daily Dust Forecasts is accessible through the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center THREDDS. 

THREDDS (Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Service) is a web server that provides metadata and data access for scientific datasets, using OPeNDAP, OGC WMS and WCS, HTTP, and other remote data access protocols. THREDDS is developed and supported by Unidata, a division of the University Corporation for  Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

To access and download the numerical data of the daily dust forecasts published on the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center website, you need to register. If you are not registered, please, send us an email to request user access. After registering, you can log in the portal and enter the repository. Two types of access to the daily dust forecasts are implemented:

• Public, providing access to numerical predictions issued more than 2 days ago. 
• Restricted, providing access to all the numerical predictions available for re-distribution, including those issued less than 2 days ago. Access is normally limited to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and other institutions contributing actively to the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center. Public administrations, research and educational institutions are eligible to access these services in support of specific activities. Applications must be submitted by email. They will be evaluated and answered within 30 days of the date of the petition.

If you need any further information about the individual models participating in the model intercomparison, you can visit the Dust Product Catalogue section or contact the corresponding contact person.

Please, be aware of the Data Policy when you use information and products available on the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center website.

The overview of the products available through the Center are fully described in the Products section and the User’s Guide document.

1. Data, images and other products from the Barcelona Dust Regional Center available on this server may be used solely for research and education purposes. Products may not be used for commercial purposes.
2. In case of establishing links to the contents of this website, kindly inform us via email.
3. The WMO Regional partners cannot guarantee that the data are correct in all circumstances. Neither do WMO Regional Node partners accept any liability whatsoever for any error or omission in the data, or for any loss or damage arising from its use.
4. Numerical data must not be supplied as a whole or in part to any third party without prior authorization.
5. Articles, papers, or written scientific works of any form, that are based in whole or in part on data, images or other products supplied by the Barcelona Dust Regional Center, should contain an acknowledgement, giving credit to the Center every time data/images/products are used. A citation example is shown below, which should be adapted accordingly:
   

   "Dust data and/or images were provided by the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center and the partners of the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) for Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe."
   

   In addition, it is strongly recommended to include the reference article per model(s) in the bibliography. 
6. Any author using the products published in the WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center should notify the modeller(s) about the citation once the paper is published and send a copy of the publication via email.