
11th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Surface Soil Moisture products at continental scale | June 13, 2023, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | The webinar will give an overview of high-resolution (1 km) satellite soil moisture data sets available at continental to global scale. These data sets are either derived by downscaling coarse resolution data from passive (SMAP, SMOS, AMSR2) and active (ASCAT) microwave sensors using optical or Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, or by deriving the soil moisture data directly from only the SAR data.

8th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Online Courses
- Assessing potential use of water resources in an African river basin | June 19 β July 14, 2023 | Online course with live-chat | This online course will show participants how to relate the water balance components (precipitation, evaporation, run-off and groundwater recharge) to identify surpluses of water and possible potential usage of those water resources in the area.

10th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 10th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Drought Monitoring case studies in Africa The webinar describes ways to monitor drought events using microwave Earth Observation data. Existing methods for
Read more
Version 2 of the MOOC on Drought Assessment and Monitoring from Space
Version 2 of the MOOC on Drought Assessment and Monitoring from Space is launched. Some additional webinars and descriptions of related research is included in the MOOC. For the presentations, both French and English subtitles can be displayed over the
Read more
10th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Drought Monitoring case studies in Africa | April 11, 2023, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | The webinar will describe ways to monitor drought events using microwave Earth Observation data. Existing methods for the calculation of climate normals, anomalies and drought indicators will be described and demonstrated over Africa. The strength and weaknesses of the indicators and an evaluation with common drought indicators such as Standardized Precipitation Index will be discussed. Furthermore, the use of soil moisture for early season yield prediction will be discussed.

Announcing the EO AFRICA R&D Research Projects β Awarded Proposals (Second Call)
EO AFRICA R&D Research Projects 2023-2024 β Awarded Proposals: EO AFRICA R&D Research Projects 2023-2024 Following the successful Call for Research Proposals 2022-2023, the EO AFRICA R&D Facility, in coordination with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the African Union
Read more
7th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Online Courses
- Monitoring Vegetation Dynamics from Space | April 3 β 28, 2023 | Online course with live-chat | In this course, you will be exploring the potential of the temporal dimension of satellite EO data for monitoring vegetation dynamics and land cover/land use changes over longer periods of time. Aside from learning the theoretical concepts of hyper-temporal monitoring, the participants will acquire practical skills in how to acquire, pre-process and analyse long time series of satellite EO data.

9th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 9th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Global flood monitoring and Surface Soil Moisture anomalies The webinar describes ways to monitor flood events and surface soil moisture on a
Read more
8th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 8th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: fPAR as a Proxy for Yield Estimation/Forecasting The webinar provides a biological basis for crop yield estimation and within-season forecasting with Earth
Read more
African Research Fellowships Call 2023
We are pleased to announce the 2023 AUC-ESA call that will offer 1-year fellowships to 4 new African Researchers to work at the ESA-ESRIN premises in Frascati (Rome, Italy) in synergy with ESA projects and scientists. More information here: https://eo4society.esa.int/2022/12/02/arf2023/
Read more
Registration is open for Face to Face course on Cloud Computing and Algorithms for EO Analyses
- Face to Face course on Cloud Computing and Algorithms for EO Analyses | October 17 β 21, 2023 | Kigali, Rwanda | This course introduces participants to Cloud Computing and its usage for Earth Observation (EO) data analyses. It starts with big geospatial data concepts and extends to Cloud Computing as one of the solutions for solving the problems of big EO data.

9th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Global flood monitoring and Surface Soil Moisture anomalies | February 14, 2023, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | The webinar will describe ways to monitor flood events and surface soil moisture on a global scale, using microwave Earth Observation data. Current research topics will be described that are relevant for use cases in Africa (e.g. subsurface scattering in arid regions). The validation of flood monitoring and of soil moisture products will be discussed.

8th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- fPAR as a Proxy for Yield Estimation/Forecasting | January 23, 2023, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | The webinar provides a biological basis for crop yield estimation and within-season forecasting with Earth observation image data. We facilitate the introduction with a βbig leafβ approach to light-use efficiency. Big leaf models assume canopies are homogenous and the response of the canopy to light is linear.

7th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 7th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Flood Mapping with Sentinel-1 data This webinar will focus on the importance and use of Sentinel-1 SAR data for flood mapping. With
Read more
6th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Online Courses
- Soil Moisture from Space | March 6 β 31, 2023 | Online course with live-chat | This online course will provide participants with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge on electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with materials, (passive) radiometry and thermal emission, and (active) radar equation, backscattering and SAR image processing. It will introduce radiative transfer model (also called Tau-omega for passive microwave for land) and water-cloud model (active), as well as corresponding retrievals of soil moisture.

5th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Online Courses
- Hyper-Temporal Mapping of Agro-Ecosystems & Assessing Land Suitability | February 6 β March 3, 2023 | Online course with live-chat | From early 2000 onwards, the availability of high-quality Hyper-Temporal (HT) EO, has created an enormous number of additional possibilities to map and detect changes as required to monitor impacts. Use of the dimensions βspace & timeβ now lets us study and work on issues that earlier remained βout-of-reachβ and remained βunansweredβ.

6th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Face to Face Courses
- Face to Face course on Vegetation and Drought Monitoring from Space | January 23 β 27, 2023 | CRASTE-LF, Rabat, Morocco | A 5-day trainingΒ to learn how to tackle the challenges of Food Security by exploiting satellite observations to monitor the occurrence and impacts of droughts on agricultural productivity at various spatial scales.

October 2022, EO Africa R&D Facility events
October 2022 was a busy month for the EO AFRICA R&D Facility, have a look at our activities during that month:
Read more
7th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Flood Mapping with Sentinel-1 data | December 6, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | This webinar will focus on the importance and use of Sentinel-1 SAR data for flood mapping. With Sentinel-1 SAR data, we can map and analyse the affected flooded areas over a region, that may be not easily accessible, and even compare them with the official flood maps available.

AARSE 2022 β October 24-28, 2022
During the AARSE 2022 International Conference, session: βIntegrated Geospatial technologies in agriculture and food securityβ, Diana Chavarro-Rincon presented the EO AFRICA R&D Facility: Enabling a proactive African research community and creative innovation processes to address food security and water related
Read more
Hackathon β GMES & Africa β October 24-28, 2022
Parallel to the AARSE 2022, the GMES & Africa in partnership with the Rwanda Space Agency, Carnegie Mellon University Africa and the ESA EO AFRICA Initiative conducted an EO hackathon. During this hackathon the participants had to opportunity to tackle
Read more
YESS side event β October 23, 2022
Also previous to the AARSE 2022 conference and on the invitation of the GWEX Project (part of the World Climate Research Programme, WCRP), Zoltan Vekerdy and Diana Chavarro-Rincon introduced the Facility to the YESS (Young Earth System Scientist) Community during
Read more
Face to Face course in Kigali, Rwanda
As part of the series of face to face events linked to our Space Academy, Michael Marshall and Kees de Bie (ITC) successfully delivered the course βMonitoring of Agroecosystems from Spaceβ on October 18-22 in Kigali, Rwanda as a preamble
Read more
Copernicus Workshop β October 11, 2022
The second week of October, Mahdi Farnaghi presented our Innovation Lab – and related support & training- during the workshop βCopernicus data access and use in Africaβ. The objective of the workshop was to collect African institutions views on the
Read more
NSO Conference β October 5, 2022
On the invitation of the Netherlands Space Office, NSO, ZoltΓ‘n Vekerdy presented the Facility during the βSpace for food securityβ conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands. This event served as an inspirational closure of the Geodata for Agriculture (G4AW) program of
Read more
ESA β EO AFRICA R&D Facility 2nd Research Call
ESA EO AFRICA R&D Facility, in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) announce: Call for Research Proposals 2022-2023 Related to the themes EO for managing water scarcity and safeguarding food security in Africa EO AFRICA R&D Facility is the
Read more
EO AFRICA R&D Facility Forum
Announcing the implementation of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Forum: We have recently implemented the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Forum as an online discussion board where people from the EO AFRICA community can ask questions, share their experiences, and discuss
Read more
Announcing the Training Modules at the GMES AND AFRICA
The EO AFRICA Training Modules are now also available at the GMES & Africa Digital Learning Platform: The GMES & Africa Programme is announcing new modules developed by the EO-AFRICA Research and Development Facility. These courses are self-paced (no facilitator).
Read more
6th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 6th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Hyper-Temporal Mapping of Agro-Ecological Systems This webinar introduces participants with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to map agro-ecological systems at region
Read more
5th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Face to Face Courses
- Face to Face course on Cloud based EO analyses for Water and Food Security | November 7 β 11, 2022 | Nairobi, Kenya | Introduction to Cloud based image analysis techniques for Water and Food Security.

4th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Face to Face Courses
- Face to Face course on Mapping and Performance Monitoring of Agroecosystems from Space | October 18 β 22, 2022 | Kigali, Rwanda | Necessary theoretical and practical knowledge for getting started on monitoring agroecosystems (croplands + rangelands) with satellite EO data.

4th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Online Courses
- Vegetation and Drought Monitoring from Space | September 19 β October 14, 2022 | Online course with live-chat | The online course provides the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge on vegetation and drought monitoring based on satellite EO data. It introduces the general concept of EO-based vegetation/drought monitoring, shows the different types of potentially useful EO data, highlights relevant satellite sensors and freely available data products as well as explains different analysis techniques that can be employed for deriving meaningful information from satellite observations.

5th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 5th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Introduction to Precipitation from Space This webinar introduces rainfall observations obtained from satellites using the visible, thermal infrared and microwave parts of
Read more
6th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Hyper-Temporal Mapping of Agro-Ecological Systems | August 25, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | This webinar introduces participants with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to map agro-ecological systems at region to country levels (benchmark mapping) for subsequent monitoring using βfutureβ EO-derived imagery.

First round of the research projects presented during the ESA Living Planet Symposium
The 15 selected African-European tandems of the EO AFRICA R&D research projects had the opportunity to present their proposals during the recent ESA Living Planet Symposium (May 23-27) in Bonn, Germany. Topics such as droughts and floods monitoring, crop yield
Read more
Face to Face course on Earth Observations for Water Resources Assessment and Monitoring
The first actual Face to Face course of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility was successfully delivered from May 15 β 19, 2022 in Accra, Ghana. In this occasion, 21 participants from 5 countries learnt and practiced cloud computing-based techniques for water resources assessment using Earth observations and the Innovation Lab.
Read more
Announcing the EO AFRICA R&D Research Projects β Awarded Proposals (First Call)
EO AFRICA R&D Research Projects Awarded Proposals: EO AFRICA R&D Research Projects 2022-2023 In the framework of the ESA EO AFRICA initiative, the R&D Facility in collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA) and the African Union Commission (AUC), launched at
Read more
EO AFRICA Initiative
- EO AFRICA Initiative | Tuesday β 24.05.2022, 03:20 PM | Agora SAPIENS, World Conference Center Bonn | The EO AFRICA Initiative will be explained and discussed during the Agora session of the ESA Living Planet Symposium next 24 of May in Bonn. Join us for an interesting roundtable-type discussion in which key representative of the Advisory Board and other African institutions will analyze the progress and define the future development of the EO AFRICA Initiative.

3rd edition of the DLR/ESA open PolInSAR training course
- 3rd edition of the DLR/ESA open PolInSAR training course | May 2 β July 8, 2022 | Online | Great opportunity to understand multi-parameter SAR data: The DLR-HR PolinSAR course offers a comprehensive training on SAR-based technics (PolSAR, InSAR, PolISAR, TomoSAR). This will be also an excellent opportunity for the users of our Innovation Lab to practice the cloud-based computing skills learnt, with a different platform. Places are limited but members of the EO AFRICA Community are particularly encouraged to apply.

3rd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Face to Face Courses
- Face to Face course on Cloud Computing and Algorithms for EO Analyses | Date: CANCELED | Royal HΓ΄tel Rabat, Rabat, Morocco | Introduction to Cloud Computing and its usage for Earth Observation (EO) data analyses.

4th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 4th Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Evapotranspiration from space This webinar is devoted to evapotranspiration (ET) monitoring with Earth Observation (EO) satellites. The webinar has the following parts:
Read more
2nd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Face to Face Courses
- Face to Face course on Earth Observations for Water Resources Assessment and Monitoring | May 15β19, 2022 | Erata Hotel, Accra, Ghana | Introduction to cloud-based image analysis techniques for surface water resources assessment and monitoring with a focus on surface water bodies and wetland dynamics.

3rd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 3rd Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Software Tools for Earth Observation analyses This webinar provides an overview of existing open-source tools for processing data coming from different satellite
Read more
3rd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Online Courses
- Water and Energy budgets from Space | April 18 β May 13, 2022 | Online course with live-chat | Satellite Earth observation, hydro-meteorological modelling and data assimilation provide a powerful combination for quantifying hydroclimatic variables to effectively address water management issues in this online course, an introduction will be given to the theory and techniques to observe the water and energy cycle variables form space.

5th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Introduction to Precipitation from Space | April 20, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | This webinar introduces rainfall observations obtained from satellites using the visible, thermal infrared and microwave parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and blending routines applied, using qualitative and quantitative approaches.

4th on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Evapotranspiration from space | March 25, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | This webinar is devoted to evapotranspiration (ET) monitoring with Earth Observation (EO) satellites.

2nd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 2nd Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Access to Earth Observation This webinar aims to present which Earth Observation datasets are accessible via Data and Information Access Services (DIAS)
Read more
3rd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Software Tools for Earth Observation analyses | March 10, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | This webinar provides an overview of existing open-source tools for processing data coming from different satellite missions with a main focus on Copernicus missionsβ products.

EO AFRICA R&D Facility first two Online Courses
- Cloud Computing and Algorithms for EO Analyses | March 15 β April 6, 2022 | Online course with live-chat | Introduction to Cloud Computing and its usage for Earth Observation (EO) data analysis. It starts with big geospatial data concepts and extends to Cloud Computing as one of the solutions for solving the problems of big EO data.
- Principles of and advances in Earth Observation | March 28 β April 14, 2022 | This online course will provide participants with fundamental EO knowledge to better understand and use Earth Observation data.

1st on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel
The 1st Webinar on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series is now available in our YouTube channel: Introduction to Cloud Computing for EO Analyses This webinar introduces Cloud Computing and its usage to analyse and process Earth Observation (EO)
Read more
2nd on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Access to Earth Observation | February 17, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | The webinar aims to present which Earth Observation datasets are accessible via Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) platforms, and demonstrate how such imagery can be queried, selected and downloaded.

1st on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Webinar Series
- Introduction to Cloud Computing for EO Analyses | February 3, 2022, 14:00 CET | Online webinar with live-chat | This webinar introduces Cloud Computing and its usage to analyse and process Earth Observation (EO) data.

1st on the EO AFRICA R&D Facility Face to Face Courses
- Face to Face course on Advances in Earth Observation Event | February 7β11, 2022 | Online training course | Introduction to Earth Observation, the Copernicus Programme, Optical and Radar Remote Sensing, practical hands-on part and an individual project.

Announcing the winners of the AfricaGIS 2021 Hackathon on Food Security and Water Resources
EO Africa R&D Facility, ESA, the African Commission, GMES & Africa and CURAT announce: The winners of the AfricaGIS 2021 Hackathonon Food Security and Water Resources During the AfricaGIS 2021 conference held in Abidjan, CΓ΄te dβIvoire on 22nd β 26th
Read more
MOOC on Drought Assessment and Monitoring from Space
Extensive time-series on vegetation and wealth of operational satellites from space provides ample opportunities to monitor vegetation developments and more and more accurate yield forecast. This MOOC provides an introduction to βDroughtsβ, answers questions on how it can be quantified,
Read more
AfricaGIS 2021 Hackathon Event
- AfricaGIS 2021 Hackathon on Food Security and Water Resources | November 22-25, 2021 | Centre Universitaire de Recherche et d’Application en TΓ©lΓ©dΓ©tection (CURAT), Abidjan, CΓ΄te d’Ivoir | Get ready to take part in the 3-day hackathon jointly organized by the EO AFRICA R&D Facility, GMES&Africa and CURAT as a part of the AfricaGIS 2021 conference.

ESA β EO AFRICA R&D Facility Call for Research Proposals
ESA EO AFRICA R&D Facility, in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) announce: Call for Research Proposals 2021 Related to the themes: EO for managing water scarcity and safeguarding food security in Africa. EO AFRICA stands for African Framework
Read more
Another interesting event organized by GEO and RCMRD
- AfriGEO Virtual Symposium 2021 | 17-19 November 2021 | Open Science for growing African Industries in Earth Observation | Organized by Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD)

Opportunities for our African community: African Research Fellowships Call
Open to 1-year R&D proposal contributing to one of the following areas:
- Water resources management
- Food security
Important dates:
- Open call: 16 July 2021
- Deadline for submission of Proposals: 30 September 2021
- Communication of Results: (tentative) Mid November 2021
- Beginning of Activities: (tentative) 1st quarter 2022

EO Africa R&D invites you to attend the following symposium:
- GIS and Earth Observation Symposium 2021 | 24-25 June 2021 | Supporting Water Service Provision and Water Resources Management through Utilization of GIS and Earth Observation Technologies | Hosted by Kenya Water Institute (KeWI) / Ministry of Water & Sanitation and Irrigation

EO Africa R&D will be present in the following events:
- HYDROSPACE-GEOGloWS 2021 | 7-11 June 2021 | Hosted as a Virtual Event from ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy
- Europe-Africa Space Earth Observation High-Level Forum | 10 and 11 June 2021 | Lisbon and Online
- European Development Days 2021 – 14th edition | 15 and 16 June 2021 | Online

EO AFRICA R&D Facility kick-off
As part of a long-term strategy (>10 years), the European Space Agency launched their new initiative EO AFRICA (African Framework for Research Innovation, Communities and Applications in Earth Observation), by the kick-off meeting of the EO AFRICA Research and Development
Read more