Correction of CAMS PM₁₀ Reanalysis Improves AI-Based Dust Event Forecast

High dust loading significantly impacts air quality, climate, and public health. Early warning is crucial for mitigating short-term effects, and accurate dust field estimates are needed for forecasting. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) offers global reanalysis datasets and forecasts of particulate matter with a diameter of under 10 μm (PM₁₀), which approximate dust, but recent studies highlight discrepancies between CAMS data and ground in-situ measurements. Since CAMS is often used for forecasting, errors in PM₁₀ fields can hinder accurate dust event forecasts, which is particularly challenging for models that use artificial intelligence (AI) due to the scarcity of dust events and limited training data. This study proposes a machine-learning approach to correct CAMS PM₁₀ fields using in-situ data to enhance AI-based dust event forecasting. A correction model that links pixel-wise errors with atmospheric and meteorological variables was taught using gradient-boosting algorithms. This model is then utilized to predict CAMS error in previously unobserved pixels across the Eastern Mediterranean, generating CAMS error fields. Our bias-corrected PM₁₀ fields are, on average, 12 μg m⁻³ more accurate, often reducing CAMS errors by significant percentages. To evaluate the contribution, we train a deep neural network to predict city-scale dust events (0–72 h) over the Balkans using PM₁₀ fields. Comparing the network’s performance when trained on both original and bias-corrected CAMS PM₁₀ fields, we show that the correction improves AI-based forecasting performance across all metrics.