SCO in South Africa
1 The South African National Space Agency (SANSA)
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SANSA has a legislative mandate for the acquisition, archiving, processing, and dissemination of satellite imagery, to enable the development of data and information products for the use and benefit of the public sector and the Earth observation community. SANSA promote the use of space and strengthen cooperation in space-related activities while fostering research in space science, advancing scientific engineering through developing human capital, and supporting industrial development in space technologies. |
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2 SCO statement
South Africa through SANSA, became a signatory to the SCO Charter on 6 November 2023 signed at the Group of Earth Observation (GEO) Week 2023 that took place in South Affrica, Cape Town. Through this initiative, SANSA plans to develop a Space for Climate Change Agenda that will equip and improve our service offering to the government, policy-makers, decision-makers, business and the general public.
SANSA joined this global effort to assist in capacitating South Africa’s climate resilience efforts and further contribute to the implementation of the National Climate Adaptation Strategy. As the SCO includes several BRICS Space Agencies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) among its signatories, this presents an opportunity for SANSA to offer globally informed advisory services to the Minister of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) in his role as Commissioner of the Presidential Climate Commission on salient global space efforts with regards to Climate Change.
3 SCO in South Africa
GOALS
The goals for SANSA through the SCO Charter are:
- To address the end user needs. This will be done by identifying the needs and using already available EO data to create solutions.
- To establish local strong partnerships to advance the climate agenda driven by the Presidential Climate Commission.
To achieve these goals, the SCO in South Africa will depend on a number of role players who are the scientific community (science councils and universities), industry, business and government authorities.
OBJECTIVES
- Develop decision support tools that promote socioeconomic benefits, like environmental and resource management, disaster management and health
- Provide space application products and services
- Produce value-added remote sensing services
