image
in print
The Satellite Applications Centre (SAC), situated at Hartebeesthoek south-west of Pretoria, operates as a programme within the CSIR's Division of Information and Communications Technology (Mikomtek) and has two main areas of business.
TRACKING TELEMETRY & COMMAND SERVICES
The SAC has been active in
TT&C since the early 1960's and its services are available on a contract
basis to launch
agencies and the owners and operators of satellites.
These services are rendered by an experienced team on a 24-hour
per day basis throughout the year.
In this context SAC is part
of the 2 GHz network of the French National Space Agency, CNES. It also
has service
contracts with world leading private companies
involved in Aerospace business.
The S-band TT&C services
were supplemented with Ku/Ka - band capabilities during 1998.
EARTH OBSERVATION
As the leading earth observation
centre in southern Africa, the SAC receives, processes, archives and distributes
data and map format products from a number of Earth observation satellites
such as Landsat, SPOT, the European ERS, NOAA and OrbView-2. The SAC is
also a distributor of data from Canada's RADARSAT. These activities are
the responsibility of the Data Access, Archiving and Distribution Group
(DAAD).
The SAC is continually evaluating
reception, archiving and distribution of data from all new Earth observation
satellites, including the high-resolution optical systems expected to be
operational soon.
The SAC's archive contains
digital data from as early asa1972 in some cases and is kept current by
the daily addition
of new data sets.
Customers can access SAC's
on-line catalogue and browse images through the World Wide Web at http://www.sac.co.za.
The Geo-Information Products
and Applications (GIPA) Group concentrates on high level value added products
as
well as entering into EO based projects with
government and private sector clients. Areas of interest where the SAC
is actively promoting the use of EO data in South
Africa and other African countries include rural (small-scale) farming,
water resource management and land use policies.
In order to promote the use
of EO data, training seminars catering for students from all over Africa
are organised at
least twice per annum. These are designed and
presented jointly by the SAC and selected partners.
More information on the CSIR
and the SAC respectively is available at the web sites http://www.csir.co.za
and
http://www.sac.co.za
The broader issues of links to the other IGOS Partners and how to increase
IGOS visibility were also discussed at
the La Jolla SIT Meeting. The CEOS Chairman will contact IGOS Partners
to initiate a preliminary discussion
on the development of IGOS themes and will also undertake to complete
the exchange of letters endorsing a common
IGOS annex with those Partners who have not yet responded. A number
of ideas were put forward for increasing IGOS visibility, each of which
would require full coordination with the other IGOS Partners. NASDA is
prepared to lead an effort to produce by early Summer 1999 an IGOS brochure
for outreach purposes to key national and international decision makers
as well as for use at the July 1999 UNISPACE-3 Conference and other international
meetings. CNES will prepare a proposal for an IGOS newsletter or bulletin
for discussion at the upcoming June 1999 IGOS Partnership Meeting. Other
venues for promoting IGOS and IGOS activities were also discussed, including
the G8 Economic Summit and the Conference of the Parties for international
conventions on topics such as climate and biodiversity.
The next SIT meeting is planned for early June in Rome, following the
IGOS Partnership Meeting.