Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) extended to Africa

?¨GMES Africa?Æ would be a continuation of the African Monitoring of Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) project, which has just been approved by the European commission.

 

The African component of this initiative would enable African regional and national decision-makers to benefit from the operational use of Earth Observation technologies and related methodologies in support to the implementation of their development policies. The initiative is expected to provide useful data and tools that will help accelerate sustainable development in the region by successfully managing the continent??s environment and its natural resources. These would be based on the currently planned GMES services developed in Europe.

 

The implementation of the ?¨GMES Africa?Æ initiative might be funded as part of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF). The present initiative would be the third pan-African project funded by the European Union and implemented with the support of EUMETSAT. The former initiatives known as Preparation for the Use of Meteosat Second Generation in Africa (PUMA) and African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) have permitted the reception and use of satellite data from meteorological to environmental and climate monitoring. It has also helped establish thematic regional networks with each of the five participating African regional economic groups responsible for handling specific aspects of environmental monitoring.

 

Images and data from EUMETSAT??s weather satellites will continue to support African meteorological institutions to improve their weather forecasting and reduce the risk of environmental degradation and natural disasters.

 

 

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation with currently 19 European Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and 10 Cooperating States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic).

 

EUMETSAT is currently operating Meteosat-6, -8 and 9 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-5 ?± and soon Meteosat-7 ?± over the Indian Ocean.
The data, products and services from EUMETSAT??s satellites make a significant contribution to weather forecasting and to the monitoring of the global climate.

 

(Source Eumetsat)