Weather and Climate Information Services Early Warning for Southern Africa (WISER- EWSA)
The WISER-EWSA project builds on the success of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) African Science for Weather Information and Forecasting Techniques (SWIFT) project which enabled the development of a weather forecasting app called FASTA (Forecasting African STorms Application). The FASTA app is currently running in Kenya and offers Africa real-time weather information on severe thunderstorms. The project intends to make satellite-based nowcasting (0-6 hours) products more widely available in southern Africa, using the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) data and the Meteosat Third Generation (when that becomes available). African countries have indicated that they are willing and eager to have their own African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility (AMSAF), which will be run in Africa, by Africa and for African nations. The concept of an African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility was ratified by the Abidjan Declaration in 2019 at the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology, where it was accepted with enthusiasm by African Members. The AMSAF nowcasting concept is the ideal foundation for the creation of regional hubs where satellite data and products can be accessed and disseminated to others.
Objectives
- Strengthen capacity for co-producing nowcasts and short-range forecast EWSs across the Southern African regional network;
- Reduce risk of extreme storms for diverse urban populations;
- Identify business models to ensure sustainability of nowcasts and short-range forecast EWSs;
- Stimulate regional demand for nowcasts as part of a suite of weather and climate information across the full range of timescales for risk reduction.
Structure
In the near term, there will be sustainable (technical and funded) capacity for co-producing nowcasts in countries of Africa; greater demand for nowcasts within a suite of weather and climate information across timescales from diverse user groups; and strengthened institutional links between NHMS and DRR organisations and user groups for sustainable generation, communication and use of EWSs. Together these will contribute to the longer-term outcome of a regional co-produced EWS to complement seasonal contingency planning and longer-term risk reduction. These contribute to WISER outcomes of sustained improvements in weather and climate information services in Africa (adopted at scale and sustained post-WISER and geographically) with a particular focus on community users who see positive changes in economic and/or non-economic values and preparedness levels to extreme weather events, achieved through better access to enhanced weather and climate information services amongst users; and improved awareness of the value of using weather and climate information indecision-making amongst users.
- Region:
- Region I: Africa
- Disaster Risk Reduction
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