The CGA’s receiving station for MESA (Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa), is now operational!
In the first week of September, Motlotlegi Pilane, a representative of MESA, visited the CGA to repair the receiving station’s satellite dish.
Stellenbosch University was named a beneficiary institution of the MESA programme for the Southern African Development Community in 2015 after an application submitted by the CGA and the Stellenbosch University Water Institute (SUWI). An initial training session was held in Windhoek, Namibia, in March 2016 and was attended by Prof. Adriaan van Niekerk, Mr Theo Pauw (CGA) and Dr Willem de Clercq (SUWI).
The MESA SADC Thema programme provides remote sensing derived products based on four key themes: drought, agriculture, flooding and fire. Raw data is disseminated through a communication satellite (bypassing the internet), and software is provided to convert this data to several indices and other value-added products.
Stellenbosch University and the CGA is involved in training various interested parties from government and elsewhere in the use of data, as well as having a receiving station installed on the premises. The provided workstation downloads the data and runs the MESA fire service. Furthermore funding was provided by the University for three further workstations for the other thema and additional storage space.
