China, Brazil supply free sat images to Africa
by Steuart Pennington and Brett Bowes

South Africa The Good News    Translate This Article
29 November 2007

Brazil and China have joined forces to distribute state of the art satellite imagery to Africa free of charge.

The announcement was made in Cape Town on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). The satellite images will empower governments and organizations in Africa to use satellite imagery to monitor and respond to emerging natural disasters, deforestation, desertification and drought, threats to agricultural production and food security, and emerging health risks.

'This new service ... will strengthen sustainable development and risk management throughout Africa,' said Zheng Guoguang of the China Meteorological Administration. 'It will also advance global cooperation towards achieving the full and open sharing of Earth observation data.'

'Providing high-quality Earth observation data at no charge is a crucial first step. To ensure that decision makers in Africa can fully exploit this data, we are also committed to providing image-processing software and on-demand geographic information system (GIS) tools, together with training, to all users who require it,' said Gilberto Camara, Director General of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

Brazil and China agreed in 1988 to build, launch and jointly run remote-sensing Earth observation satellites. The CBERS programme (pronounced 'syberz') now enables the two countries to produce data and images of their huge national territories cost-effectively.

Brazil and China have signed memoranda of understanding with South Africa, Spain and Italy for using ground stations to download and process CBERS imagery and then distribute it cost-free throughout Africa by means of a data-dissemination system as well as through web-based distribution schemes.

The four African receiving stations are located in the Canary Islands (operated by Spain); Hartebeesthoek, South Africa; and Malindi, Kenya and Matera, Italy, both operated by Italy. The service will be fully operational by early 2008.

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