HESCF and MESA-SADC-THEMA collaborate to setup a EUMETCast Receiving
station at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM)
Africa is probably the continent which is most vulnerable to climate
change and it faces frequent natural disasters such as droughts, floods or
bush-fires. Many countries are developing coping strategies to manage
their natural resources and to reduce their vulnerability to climate change.
As many ministries are building up internal capacity, technical officers
with “Geographic Information Systems” (GIS) and “Remote Sensing” (RS)
skills are in high-demand.
EUMETSAT systematically disseminate important Earth Observation
(EO) datasets from European data providers in near real time to Africa
through their EUMETCast dissemination system at zero cost for the end-user
in Africa.
The access to relevant and recent Earth Observation data, both for
educational as for research (PhD-students) purposes, remains a primary
challenge for the universities because the internet connections towards and
inside Africa, and in particular in Mozambique are generally very poor.
Students and staff often need multiple weeks of night-work to acquire some
old datasets to support their educational and research needs. Due to the
lack of data, many students graduate with a lot of theoretical but little
practical experience.
The above need for NRT (Near Real Time) data can be easily solved by
setting up a low-cost EUMETCast receiving station within the university
and by teaching the university staff on how to operate and maintain
the station. With a small investment, the University could fully benefit
from the huge stream of NRT data which comes for free through EUMETCast
system day after day.
The Earth Observation Data data can be used to train the students with
local and real-time data within the GIS and RS courses as well as in many
derived applications (e.g. natural resources monitoring) or to allow PhD
and thesis students to conduct their research.
Their knowledge to monitor the earth from space can then
become their ”ticket to the stars”.
This project is funded by the HE Space Children's
Foundation and the MESA SADC-THEMA.