New AERONET site Tunis-Carthage in the framework of SDS-Africa Project and funded by AECID

Mr. Ramon Ramos and Dr. Alberto Berjón have traveled to Tunis/Carthage during mid-June to install a new Cimel sun photometer within the project “Sand and Dust Storm-Africa”. This instrument completes the photometers network in the North Africa managed by the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (AEMET), which includes measurements from the Canary Islands (Spain), Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.

This new station is part of AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) and is co-managed by the Institut National de la Météorologie (INM) in Tunisia and the Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) in Spain.

The “Sand and Dust Storm-Africa” project (SDS-Africa) has been financed by the AECID (“Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo”; International Cooperation Agency for the Development of Spain) through a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Trust Fund (Atmospheric Research and Environment Programme). This project enhances the observation capacity of dust storms in Northern Africa, near dust sources. The main goals of SDS-Africa are the characterization of the Saharan Air Layer, the early warning of dust storms, the verification of satellite based products, and the validation of regional and global dust models.

This project is also a contribution to the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe hosted by AEMET and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The new station in Tunis/Carthage reinforces the fruitful joint cooperation between INM and AEMET in atmospheric research and monitoring.

Data from the Tunis-Carthage site can be accessed through the AERONET website.

This photo shows some of the people involved in the installation of the CIMEL sun photometer: Alberto Berjón, Arbi Trifi, Faycal Elleuch, Mounir Souii, Ramon Ramos and Fekri Ghorbel (and Ilyes Zarrouk, missing because he was taking the picture)

After the installation a short training course on installation, operation and basic maintenance was given to the personnel in charge of the Cimel sun photometer.

We thank the Service of Management of the Systems of Observations at Tunis, directed by Mr. Ahmed Hmam, and the Regional Service of Sfax, directed by Mr. Faycel Elleuch, for their professionalism and warm hospitality. We also want specially thank to the General Director of the INM, Mr. N’Miri, for his decisive support for this project.