The African Meteorological Satellite Application Facility (AMSAF) was launched in Addis Ababa on Monday, marking a new effort to strengthen short-term weather forecasting across Africa using next-generation satellite data.
The facility is designed to help national meteorological and hydrological services improve nowcasting, or forecasts covering the next zero to six hours, with more accurate and locally tailored information on severe weather events. Officials say the initiative will support faster and more effective warnings for storms, floods and other hazards that have caused loss of life, displacement and damage across the continent in recent years.
Representatives from the African Union Commission, the European Union, EUMETSAT, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority, the World Meteorological Organization, and the technical consortium leading AMSAF attended the launch event in Addis Ababa. The consortium is headed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute and includes the Spanish State Meteorological Agency, the University of Leeds and Meteo Maroc.
Phil Evans, Director-General of EUMETSAT, said AMSAF represents an important step in helping African countries take full ownership of their weather forecasting systems. He said the initiative will support the development of locally tailored satellite products and strengthen resilience to extreme weather while contributing to sustainable development.
The facility will establish a network of regional nowcasting centres serving Western, Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. The African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development, based in Niger, will also contribute to the network. These centres will use data from Meteosat Third Generation satellites to produce short-term forecasts that can support national decision-making.
Each centre will operate with local or cloud-based processing systems and will be backed by a capacity-building programme aimed at improving technical skills and operational readiness. The initiative is also expected to support the United Nations Early Warnings for All initiative and the African Union’s AMHEWAS framework for multi-hazard early warning systems.
AMSAF was established by the African Union Commission under the EU-funded Strengthening Early Warning in Africa project, which forms part of the European Commission’s Global Gateway Africa–EU Space Partnership Programme. The project is jointly implemented by EUMETSAT, the African Union Commission and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
