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SA’s space agency becomes space weather centre for aviation across Africa

25th January 2019

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The South African National Space Agency (Sansa) had been chosen by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to be the provider of space weather information for the aviation sector across Africa and/or using African airspace, the Ministry of Science and Technology has announced. Space weather observation and research falls under Sansa’s Space Science Programme, while Sansa itself is an agency of the Department of Science and Technology.

This will mean that Sansa will become one of two ICAO-selected regional space weather centres (the other being a joint Chinese-Russian centre). ICAO also has three designated global space weather centres.

To fulfil its task, Sansa will cooperate with one of these three global centres, the Pan-European Consortium for Aviation Space Weather User Services (Pecasus), which is composed of nine research and monitoring organisations from across Europe. The relationship with Pecasus will give Sansa better access to international models and expertise.

“South Africa’s designation as a regional space weather information provider will grow the science, engineering, technology and innovation sector, offering opportunities to develop scarce skills and increase national research output, while ensuring that usable products are generated from the knowledge,” stated the Ministry in its press release. “Owing to the increased interconnectedness and interdependence of technological systems in the world today (which will expand as the Fourth Industrial Revolution gathers momentum), space weather events can have a negative impact on multiple systems, leading to serious operational failures in the communication, navigation, energy and aviation sectors, among others, with potentially disastrous effects.”

Space weather refers to conditions on the sun, the solar wind, the magnetosphere, the ionosphere and the thermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-based and ground-based technology systems. The main space weather phenomena are solar flares, solar energetic particles (protons, electrons and helium ions) and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Solar flares can disrupt high-frequency (HF) radio communications and satellite communications. They take eight minutes to reach earth. Solar energetic particles can reach earth in 15 minutes to a few hours, depending on their severity. With these, ionising radiation penetrates the atmosphere, satellites can be damaged and HF communications are disrupted. They are dangerous for astronauts. CMEs take one to four days to reach the earth. Most do not come towards earth. Those that do are called geoeffective and affect HF communications and satellite navigation systems, increase the drag on satellites (causing orbital decay) and generate auroras. CMEs also create geomagnetically induced currents, which affect electrical power systems, oil pipelines and even undersea cables.

Sansa’s space weather centre is located at Hermanus, in the Western Cape, and was officially reinaugurated in April last year after being upgraded. Additional funding is being sought to increase the centre’s capabilities, so that it can fully meet its new responsibilities. The centre has been supplying space weather information to the South African public, industry and government for years now, and Sansa has been developing its capabilities in this field since 2010.

The Hermanus centre is the only one of its kind in Africa. It is intended to partner with other African countries, to share data, host infrastructure, provide training, develop products and collaborate on research.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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