Haboobs: Convectively generated dust storms in West Africa

Saharan/Sahelian haboobs are potentially a very large source of atmospheric dust from the African continent. They are usually produced by convective systems that develop into MCSs and propagate westwards along the southern side of the ITD during the summer monsoon season. They are capable of reaching sizes far in excess of haboobs seen elsewhere in the world. Haboobs are partly responsible for various health and social impacts on the local human populace while dust deflated by them has the potential to impact on the global climate and the biogeochemical systems. In order to fully understand the behaviour of Saharan haboobs it is necessary to explore various different areas of meteorological science, including: (1) understanding West African meteorology and climatology, for example by increasing the number of observations in the Sahel and Sahara; (2) understanding the dynamics and thermodynamics of gravity currents and haboobs; (3) understanding the microphysics of convective clouds and how this affects downdraught and cold pool production and (4) making improvements to NWP models such as new parameterizations and modelling at finer resolutions.