E-mail Archive
EAMNet News: Issue 1
Dear colleagues,
Please find below the first edition of the EAMNet Newsletter, which will
be issued quarterly with news from the programme. The newsletter can
also be accessed from the EAMNet website at:
http://www.eamnet.eu/cms/?q=node/41
I would appreciate it if you could let me know of any other people who
may be interested in receiving the newsletter, and if you maintain a
website we would appreciate it if you would consider linking to the
newsletter. If you would rather not receive further issues, please
e-mail daas@pml.ac.uk with "Unsubscribe EAMNet" in the subject line.
I hope you enjoy reading about the network and if you would like to
contribute an article to the next issue, please send it to me by 23
August.
with thanks
Dawn Ashby
Communications Officer, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
<http://www.eamnet.eu/>
In this issue:
Welcome to EAMNet
GMES and Africa
African RS capabilities
GEONETCast
MyOcean
EAMNet Data Portal
Project partners:
Plymouth Marine Laboratory <http://www.pml.ac.uk/>
University of Cape Town <http://www.uct.ac.za/>
Institute of Marine Research <http://www.imar.pt/>
Danish Meterological Institute <http://www.dmi.dk/eng/index/om_dmi.htm>
EUMETSAT <http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/index.htm>
National Oceanography Centre <http://noc.ac.uk/>
University of Dar-es-Salaam <http://www.udsm.ac.tz/>
University of Ghana <http://www.ug.edu.gh/>
MeteoFrance <http://france.meteofrance.com/>
National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
<http://www.niof.sci.eg/>
Issue 1: June 2010
Welcome to EAMNet
The Europe-Africa Marine Network (EAMNet <http://www.eamnet.eu/> ) is an
EC Framework 7 programme which aims to construct a network linking Earth
Observation (EO) information providers, user networks and centres of
excellence in Europe and Africa in the area of coastal and marine
observations working towards sustainable development in Africa. The
network is coordinated by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory with nine other
partners in Africa and Europe and will run for three years from 2010 to
2013.
EAMNet <http://www.eamnet.eu/> will undertake capacity building and
maintenance and build upon existing infrastructure and expertise in
Africa. The overall aim of the network is to improve the exploitation of
EO data for coastal and oceanic monitoring towards an Africa-wide
observation system (GOOS-Africa
<http://www.ioc-goos.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewGroupRecord&gr
oupID=39> ).
The network will also provide an interface between African and other
European initiatives. These include GMES <http://www.gmes.info/>
(Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) which is an EC FP7
programme aiming to establish a European capacity for Earth Observation,
and more specifically, MyOcean <http://www.myocean.eu.org/> , which is a
GMES project focussing on ocean monitoring and forecasting. African
programmes include AMESD <http://www.amesd.org/> (African Monitoring of
the Environment for Sustainable Development) and the emerging
GMES-Africa initiative.
The specific aims of EAMNet <http://www.eamnet.eu/> are to:
* Promote exploitation of existing and new marine EO data streams
in Europe and Africa and to disseminate the data using fast and reliable
systems (GEONETCast
<http://www.eumetsat.int/home/Main/What_We_Do/Technical_Cooperations/GEO
NETCast/index.htm?l=en> )
* Develop and improve the application of EO data
* Improve the coverage of the marine GEONETCast
<http://www.eumetsat.int/home/Main/What_We_Do/Technical_Cooperations/GEO
NETCast/index.htm?l=en> reception network
* Contribute to existing marine EO training courses
* Develop EO modules for African university courses
* Coordinate R&D activities in Africa and Europe and promote best
practise through targeted exchange of personnel and open fellowships
* Connect the African and European communities by co-organising
annual symposia, maintaining a website and publishing a regular
newsletter
* Identify the requirements of African stakeholders for the
provision of GMES <http://www.gmes.info/> services
* Contribute to the implementation of the Action Plan for GMES
<http://www.gmes.info/> and Africa Partnership
For further information or to get involved in the network, please see
the EAMNet website, http://www.eamnet.eu <http://www.eamnet.eu/> or
contact the project coordinator, Steve Groom, sbg@pml.ac.uk.
GMES and Africa initiative
In December 2007, European and African main stakeholders launched the
GMES <http://www.gmes.info/index.php> and Africa Process during a
dedicated event in Lisbon, Portugal, held by the Portuguese EU
Presidency. Our commitment, expressed in the Lisbon Declaration on GMES
<http://www.gmes.info/index.php> and Africa Partnership, was to develop
the GMES <http://www.gmes.info/index.php> and Africa Action Plan and
submit it for adoption to the next Africa-EU Summit to be held in Libya
by the end of 2010.
Since then, European and African partners have worked closely together
under the auspices of the 8th Africa-EU Partnership (for Science,
Information Society and Space) and a baseline version of the GMES
<http://www.gmes.info/index.php> and Africa Action Plan has been
drafted by experts from both continents, as an input for public
consultation.
The public consultation is now open until July 31 through the following
website:
http://www.aquaknow.net/gmes-africa
Your views and contributions to the improvement of this document are of
major importance for the GMES and Africa initiative, in view of its
implementation as an umbrella for coordinated and sustainable Earth
Observation activities in Africa. We are therefore looking for
contributions and suggestions of African and European experts in all
thematic areas in the document, and we would like to express our strong
encouragement to the African Member States and AUC experts and partners
in this consultation, whose views are of particular importance for
ensuring full shared ownership and support to the GMES
<http://www.gmes.info/index.php> and Africa Action Plan.
Please note that you must register on the above website in order to
submit your comments. This is a way of, not only collecting them in a
secure way, but also of providing the Coordination Team with a map of
all interested parties in the implementation of the GMES
<http://www.gmes.info/index.php> and Africa services and activities.
The GMES and Africa Coordination Team:
France, Portugal, African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology
(AMCOST), African Ministerial Council on the Environment (AMCEN),
African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW), African Union Commission -
HRST, AMESD, European Commission services - JRC, DG DEV and DG ENTR,
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
(EUMETSAT), European Space Agency (ESA), United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Developing new African operational remote sensing capabilities
The South African Marine Remote Sensing Unit (MRSU) is a
multi-institutional collective that has been mandated to serve southern
Africa's marine earth observation needs, and uses expertise and
infrastructure from the University of Cape Town <http://www.uct.ac.za/>
, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
<http://www.csir.co.za/> , the Department of Water and Environmental
Affairs <http://www.dwa.gov.za/> , the South African Environmental
Observation Network <http://www.saeon.ac.za/> , and the Centre for High
Performance Computing <http://www.chpc.ac.za/> (CHPC).
<http://www.eamnet.eu/cms/sites/eamnet.eu/files/images/sun_MRSU.jpg>
In response to both EAMNet <http://www.eamnet.eu/> , and new South
African Operational Oceanography initiatives such as OceanSAfrica, the
MRSU is in the process of rebuilding it's earth observation processing
capability using the new Sun cluster based at the CHPC. The new cluster,
rated at 27 teraFLOPS, is amongst the fastest 500 supercomputers in the
world and is a national research facility funded by the South African
Department of Science and Technology <http://www.dst.gov.za/> .
The MRSU are currently in the process of porting and optimising their
processing codes, based primarily on NASA's SeaDAS software and open
source Python, to the new Sun facility. This will result in new and more
robust processing capabilities: routine production of standard MODIS and
MERIS data for Africa; the ability to provide new products to the
African area by processing from Level 1 data; the ability to run new
regional and experimental algorithms; the ability to handle large areas
of MERIS Full Resolution data; and the ability to quickly provide
regional data from the new MODIS global reprocess and upcoming MERIS
global reprocess. The new capability is expected to be in place by
August 2010, and should provide significantly greater access to marine
earth observation data for all African users.
Stewart Bernard, CSIR-NRE, South Africa
GEONETCast receiving stations: successes and challenges
Receiving stations for GEONETCast
<http://www.earthobservations.org/geonetcast.shtml> broadcast
environmental data were successfully installed at the four marine
partners as part of the DevCoCast
<http://www.vgt4africa.org/ViewContent.do?pageId=1> project in 2009
including the University of Ghana, LERG Senegal (which already had a
station), Marine and Coastal Management in Namibia, and the Institute of
Marine Science <http://www.ims.udsm.ac.tz/> in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The
main challenge for the installations was from logistical issues
surrounding the acquisition and delivery of the antenna, computers and
accessory equipment.
The equipment was in the procured from South African providers following
a lack of suitable local suppliers, the main constraints being very high
local pricing or unavailability of equipment. This was seen as the best
solution due to the need to procure standard equipment for all the users
to facilitate follow-up support from the help desk. The following
equipment was delivered to the users: 2 Dell T3400 precisions
workstations, a 2.4m RX C-band Aluminium Mesh Antenna with galvanised
mounts, 100 m RG6 cable and inline an amp, a Technotrend TT-budget
S-1404 DVB card, EUMETCast
<http://www.eumetsat.int/home/Main/What_We_Do/EUMETCast/index.htm>
client software and dongle, and installation and set-up manuals. The TT
DVB card was found to be more than suitable for data reception when
compared to other DVB cards. Some users had difficulty acquiring the
signal from the Atlanticbird 3 satellite. This was solved by adjusting
the pointing of the dish while checking the signal at the computer,
which was eventually locked on by re-pointing the dish.
Mark Matthews, University of Cape Town, South Africa
MyOcean
<http://www.myocean.eu/newsletter/1/index.html>
MyOcean is a project funded by the European Commission under Framework 7
within the GMES Program. The areas of benefit are: Maritime Security,
Oil Spill combat, Marine Resources management, Climate Change, Seasonal
Forecast, Coastal Activities, Ice Survey and Water Quality and
Pollution. The first edition of the MyOcean newsletter has recently been
pubished and can accessed from the MyOcean website. PML, NOC, DMI and
MeteoFrance are all members of MyOcean.
The first edition of the MyOcean newsletter has recently been pubished
and can accessed from the MyOcean website
<http://www.myocean.eu/newsletter/1/index.html> .
EAMNet Data Portal
We are pleased to announce that the EAMNet Data Portal
<http://www.eamnet.eu/data_portal> is now live. The Data Portal
provides access to a large number of datasets provided by EAMNet
partners for the region.
A graphical user interface shows the geographical area covered by the
datasets (on the left), with those covering the desired point
highlighted and a colour coded summary of datasets available (on the
right).
The datasets themselves are provided through the partners' (and others
such as NASA <http://www.nasa.gov/%20target=> , JRC
<http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm> and INCOIS
<http://www.incois.gov.in/Incois/incois1024/index/index.jsp?res=1024>
through ChloroGIN <http://www.chlorogin.org/world/> ) own web portals.
The portals are accessed by clicking the colour coded link.
Multiple datasets are often available; such as the Cape Verde area, as
supplied by PML,
and the Mauritania region, as supplied by UCT.
The Data Portal is located at http://www.eamnet.eu/data_portal and may
be accessed via the the main EAMNet website (just click on the "Data
Portal" link in the menu on the left)
Pete Walker, Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
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Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Registered Office:
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registered in England & Wales
company number 4178503
PML is a member of the Plymouth Marine Sciences Partnership
Website: www.pmsp.org.uk
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