Africa Launches Continental Satellite-Based Nowcasting Facility to Strengthen Weather Forecasting

The African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility (AMSAF) has been launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, signalling a significant step towards strengthening nowcasting capabilities across African countries using next-generation satellite data.

Severe weather across parts of Africa, including storms and tornadoes, has in recent years led to flooding and significant damage to infrastructure, resulting in fatalities and the displacement of thousands. Extreme events affect millions of people across these regions each year, underscoring the urgent need for timely and accurate weather information.

The AMSAF will enable national meteorological and hydrological services across the continent to improve their own short-term forecasts, known as ‘nowcasts’ (0-6 hour forecasts), making them more robust and tailored to regional hazards and national priorities. The initiative also supports the United Nations Early Warnings for All initiative and the African Union’s African Multi‑Hazard Early Warning and Adaptation System (AMHEWAS) framework, strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems across Africa.

Building Local Forecasting Capacity

“The AMSAF represents an important step in supporting African countries to take full ownership of their weather forecasting capabilities,” said Phil Evans, Director-General of EUMETSAT. “By advancing the development of locally tailored satellite products, we are helping strengthen resilience to extreme weather and support sustainable development across the continent.”

The AMSAF will establish a network of regional nowcasting centres across Africa, serving Western, Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. The African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), based in Niger, will contribute to this network.

Leveraging Next-Generation Satellite Technology

Using data from Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites, the AMSAF centres will produce nowcasts to support timely decision-making at national levels. Each centre will operate with local or cloud-based processing infrastructure and be supported by a comprehensive capacity-building programme.

As part of this effort, and in recognition of the importance of MTG data for the African continent, EUMETSAT will expand access to MTG data across Africa this year, notably by increasing data bandwidth on its operational EUMETCast-Africa dissemination system. This expansion will enable the AMSAF and national forecasters to benefit from improved data availability.

International Partnership Framework

The African Union Commission established AMSAF under the EU-funded Strengthening Early Warning in Africa (SEWA) project, which forms part of the European Commission’s Global Gateway Africa–EU Space Partnership Programme. EUMETSAT, the African Union Commission (AUC), and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) jointly implement the SEWA project. The launch of AMSAF marks a milestone in Africa’s efforts to develop indigenous capacity for weather monitoring and forecasting, enabling the continent to leverage space-based technologies to improve disaster preparedness and climate adaptation, whilst reducing reliance on external systems for critical weather information.