MOZCast Project Description

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.