The Univesrity of Cyprus’ Laboratory-Isle of Excellence in Environmental Fluid Mechanics, is participating in a new research project to improve desert dust storm monitoring and early warning to citizens.
CiROCCO, according to a press release, is ‘the new ambitious research project’ of the European Union and is funded by the Horizon-Europe programme, running from March 1, 2023 to February 28, 2026, with a budget of pound 3.5 million.
It was launched last month and the aim is to create a sustainable network of electronic detection nodes in desert ecosystems such as in Egypt, Serbia and Spain, develop data processing services based on technological infrastructures and provide data to the research community in order to improve the performance of climate change models for early and reliable warning of citizens.
The project is coordinated by the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) in Greece and involves 12 organisations from seven countries: Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Egypt and Serbia.
The Laboratory-Isle of Excellence in Environmental Fluid Mechanics of the University of Cyprus, under the guidance of Professor Marina Neophytou, will lead as the head of the pilot study for the monitoring of Desert Dust Episodes in Cyprus.
In particular, it is noted, the Cypriot pilot study aims to investigate the interaction between an already congested environment due to human activity, as is the case of the Municipality of Dali, and the additional impact due to Desert Dust Episodes.
Source: Cyprus News Agency