Climate, EU-AU revive weather collaboration with third-generation data satellite program

Brussels – Better data collection to mitigate and prevent the fallout of extreme weather events, safeguarding land and local communities in the name of sustainability. That’s the ambitious project for Africa, supported by the African Union Commission, officially kicking off with the installation in Kenya of the first in a series of PUMA-2025 receiving stations specifically designed to capture data from the next generation of Meteosat geostationary satellites.

Installing the specific data collection points will ensure that Kenyan meteorologists can use the most accurate and frequent data from Meteosat’s third-generation (MTG) satellites to support the sustainable development of local communities and protect lives and livelihoods. For Europe, this means fighting against one of the major causes of new migration flows — climate change.

Eumetsat’s Meteosat satellites, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, are the only Earth observation satellites with a constant view of Africa. MTG will provide images of Africa at a higher resolution than is possible now and more frequently — every 10 minutes. Eumetsat is working with the African Union Commission to establish a network of similar stations in several national weather and climate services across the continent in the coming months. It will give most African meteorologists and scientists access to the latest technology to receive and use MTG data.

Phil Evans, Director General of Eumetsat, sums up what all this means: “Continuous reception of satellite data across the continent, enabling more efficient early warnings for all, more accurate forecasts of extreme weather events, and better protection for all.” In short, Africa is equipping itself, in partnership with Europe, with a next-generation tool to combat climate change and the stress that weather can exert on people and the economy. 

The agreement between the African Union and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites was signed in 2022, aiming to revive and update a 20-year collaboration between the two continents. The first PUMA receiving station dates back to February 2004, to receive Meteosat second-generation data under the Preparation for Use of Meteosat in Africa (PUMA) project. So far, with the support from various EU-funded programs in Africa (such as PUMA, AMESD, and MESA), this infrastructure has successfully enabled African weather and climate services across the continent to receive data from Meteosat geostationary satellites in a timely and efficient manner to predict and monitor extreme weather events. The current deployments aim to upgrade the MTG infrastructure and to move from second to third-generation data. 

The upcoming installations include one in Cotonou (Benin), which will host the 16th Eumetsat User Forum in Africa. The event will provide a platform for African meteorologists to share knowledge and best practices on using Meteosat data and discuss perspectives on improving early warning systems.