12 July 2010 (Nairobi, Kenya): The month of June 2010 marked the start of the 8 deployment batches that will allow the installation of 51 AMESD Thematic stations in Africa for environment related institutions (9 full AMESD station in the IGAD region) and 50 upgrades of the PUMA platforms for National Met services.


The technical room at the ICPAC equipped with the E-station and PUMA station (11/06/2010)


As the 1st country to be targeted, KENYA saw in June the deployment of 4 AMESD thematic stations (DRSRS, ICPAC, SWALIM, KMFRI), 2 PUMA upgrade (KMD and ICPAC) and the upgrade of the regional training laboratory (IMTR).


The next batches of deployments will follow in the planning to cover all the IGAD member states.

AMESD station for Kenya National Technical Focal point (DRSRS)

A full AMESD station has been installed at the Department of Resource Survey and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) of the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, Nairobi. The DRSRS is the Associate #1 and national focal point for Kenya.


The technical room with DRSRS and Telespazio staff

AMESD station for Somalia National Technical Focal point (SWALIM)

A full AMESD station has been installed at the Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM), in Nairobi, operating for Somalia. The SWALIM is the Associate #6 and national focal point for Somalia.


SWALIM staff in the technical room


After the success of the first batch of deployment in Kenya, the deployment plan for IGAD has been set in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan and Uganda between July and December 2010.

AMESD station at ICPAC

A partial station (using an already existing dish) has been installed at the ICPAC to be used as a main source of data to support the development of the operational services on land degradation and natural habitat conservation.

Upgrade of Stations

The PUMA station of the ICPAC has been upgraded with three new systems to receive, store and process the Eumetcast data flow for meteorological and climate applications. The PUMA station of the Kenya Meteorological Department has been upgraded as well.

The first trainings using this upgraded facility will be held in August 2010, with two regional sessions

In addition to this, twelve (12) new computers with 21 inch screens have been deployed in the PUMA laboratory of the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR) in order to upgrade the regional training laboratory. It will allow the accommodation of 24 students. All computers are equipped with Linux, Synergie software, and connected to the LAN and to the Eumetcast dataflow.


© African Monitoring of Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD), 2010