The Advanced Virtual Fire Information System (AVFS) is a near-real-time satellite fire monitoring system. AVFS provides local fire management and suppression agencies across the globe with prediction, detection, alerting, planning and reporting capabilities.

Using satellite observations, AVFS delivers the GPS location, distance and direction to user-defined reference points via cell phone texts, e-mail and social media networks. The system provides fire information 15 minutes after scans by two key satellite-based sensors. Processed data sets from the Earth Observing System and the GEONETCast system feed into the AFIS.

AVFS provides fire managers, farmers and disaster personnel with a smart device application for quick access to fire information across southern Africa and globally. AVFS users are national departments and agencies, regional organizations and conservation institutions responsible for environmental protection and monitoring.

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The COSMIC-2 mission is a collaboration between National Oceanic. Atmospheric Administration (NOAA-USA), the United States Air Force and the National Space Organization of Taiwan, with the goal of obtaining Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (RO) Data worldwide. COSMIC-2 is a follow-on mission to the COSMIC-1 constellation and will afford 12 satellites in low and high inclination orbits to collect more RO data. This will enable unprecedented research opportunities for hurricane analysis and prediction in the years to come.

GNSS-RO data are collected by measuring the changes in a radio signal as it is refracted through the atmosphere, allowing derivation of temperatures and moisture in the atmosphere’s layers and electrons in the ionosphere.

COSMIC-2 is an interdisciplinary satellite mission that significantly advances numerical weather prediction (NWP), space weather monitoring, and climate monitoring. COSMIC-2 data products are accurate and provide high vertical resolution atmospheric measurements in the tropics and sub-tropics (from 40° S to 40° N). These data improve forecasting skill and more specifically produce a positive impact on the prediction of track and intensity of tropical cyclones from genesis to landfall. In addition, COSMIC-2 monitors ionospheric climatology improves physical models and contributes to understanding the coupling between the lower and upper atmosphere.

The COSMIC-2 Program has installed and integrated a Remote Tracking Station (RTS) in the University of Energy & Natural Resources in Sunyani, Ghana. This RTS was commissioned by NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) to support the launch and on-orbit operations of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC-2) constellation. The ground station is currently being managed by ATLAS Space Operations, USA and the Earth Observation Research & Innovation Centre(EORIC-UENR), Ghana.

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A small team in Ghana is using old laptop batteries to create a backup power system they call the PowerTube. It is a unique way to deal with the tons of e-waste imported into Africa each year.

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A Ghanaian, Mark Amo-Boateng, has made it to the semi-finals of the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a three-year global competition challenging teams to advance ocean technologies for rapid, unmanned and high-resolution ocean exploration and discovery.

Dr Amo-Boateng's team is building intelligent low-cost modular AUV/ROV systems to democratize ocean discovery, using advanced artificial intelligence and algorithms to navigate and explore the ocean.

XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and managing incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, today announced the 21 teams representing 13 countries advancing in the competition. Their innovative approaches run the gamut: gliders and drones, underwater robotic swarms, autonomous underwater vehicles, robotics, artificial intelligence and massive computing platforms.

From a 25-country field, a panel of independent expert judges chose the semi-finalist teams who will move forward into the first round of testing. Semi-finalist team leads hail from Canada, China, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Launched in 2015, the Ocean Discovery XPRIZE features groups including university teams of undergraduate and graduate students, non-profits, startups and professional scientists and engineers. “These semifinalist teams are on the cutting-edge, pushing the boundaries in developing deep-sea underwater technologies that will work in the lightless, cold depths to fully map one of our world’s final frontiers like never before,“ said Jyotika Virmani, Ph.D., prize lead and senior director with XPRIZE’s Energy and Environment Group, who today announced the semifinalists from the Catch the Next Wave conference in San Diego.

“Through the Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, we have an unprecedented opportunity to create next-generation tools, technologies and techniques that will illuminate deep-sea wonders and unlock a new era of ocean exploration. We look forward to seeing the teams’ innovative approaches come to life over the next 10 months.”

During Round 1, teams will deploy their entries to operate at a depth of 2,000 meters, aiming to map at least 20 percent of the 500 km2 competition area at five meters resolution, identifying and imaging at least five archeological, biological or geological features at any depth, all within 16 hours.

In other words, the competition technologies will aim to reach depths deeper than the Grand Canyon and map an area that is nearly five times the area of Paris.

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