Within this context, EUMETSAT will further its long-standing and impactful activities with the African Union Commission as well as the regional and national weather services in Africa. The organisation will continue to support access to satellite weather data, carry out training activities, and will now also ensure the technical establishment of the African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility (AMSAF).
The African continent is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and storms. The ability to predict and prepare for these events through effective early warning systems is crucial to support the sustainable development of African countries.
In recent years, new generations of satellites, such as Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) were put in orbit to provide meteorological observations over the African continent at a new level of detail and accuracy. This provided new capabilities to strengthen extreme weather monitoring.
In order to fully benefit from new space assets, African countries need to strengthen their capacities to effectively utilise space-based data for early warning and disaster management.
The Africa – EU Space Partnership Programme seeks to address this challenge by enhancing the capacity of African institutions to access, process, and use space-based meteorological data. It will also establish a cooperation model to enable African regional centres to deliver their own space-based weather products through the new AMSAF.
The programme builds on the success of previous EU-funded initiatives, such as PUMA, AMESD, MESA, GMES & Africa, and ClimSA, which laid the groundwork for the use of Earth Observation data in Africa. EUMETSAT has played an active role in supporting the implementation of these initiatives since their onset.
The SEWA project, in brief.
The overall objective of the Africa-EU Space Partnership Programme is to contribute to sustainable development, a green transition and digitalisation in Africa through an enhanced strategic EU-Africa space partnership.
Within this context, the specific objective of the SEWA project is to enhance the capacity to produce and deliver space-based services and applications, data and information, for early warning systems related to hazardous weather or climate events.
The SEWA project is expected to deliver:
- improved access to, processing, applicability and use of Earth Observation data, with a focus on meteorological data, and Numerical Weather Prediction products and services for early warning;
- the establishment and operation of an African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility including possible support for forecasting capabilities at different ranges;
- co-designed and impact-based forecast services and tools;
- enhanced coordination with an institutional framework for hazardous weather and climate early warning as well as shared knowledge across regions;
- strengthened human capacities, knowledge and community shaping across the early warning value chain, with a focus on space-based data and technologies.
The SEWA project is funded by the European Union under the Global Gateway, and is implemented by the African Union Commission, the ECMWF and EUMETSAT. The implementation period lasts from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2028. African regional centres in charge of weather, climate and training will be also involved.
Image credit: African Space Agency
