The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is South Africa's government body for the promotion and use of space. It also fosters cooperation in space-related activities and research in space science, seeks to advance scientific engineering through human capital, and supports the creation of an environment conducive to the industrial development of space technologies within the framework of national government. See: Weblink

SANSA Earth Observation drives and coordinates space based earth observation activities to sustainably benefit all South Africans in an earth-friendly manner. Our objectives are to collect, process and distribute earth observation data to support South Africa's policy, decision-making, planning, resource & environmental management, economic growth and sustainable development. Our impact is in providing:

1. essential earth observation services for socio-economic benefit
2. data and value-added remote sensing services for earth observation research and development
3. human capital development and science advancement initiatives

The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) came into existence on 3 December 2010. Built on a rich space heritage, SANSA was established to

The vision of SANSA is: To be the leader in ensuring that space science and technology benefits society, the environment, the economy and the global community through research and development, and human capital development.

To use space science and technology to:

• deliver space-related services and products to the citizens of South Africa and the region
• support, guide and conduct research and development in space science and engineering and the practical application of the innovations they generate
• stimulate interest in science and develop human capacity in space science and technologies in South Africa
• create an environment that promotes industrial development
• nurture space-related partnerships to enhance South Africa’s standing in the community of nations

Our mission is succinctly captured in our motto: in service of humanity

To create an environment that fosters institutional cohesion, a happy and fulfilling working environment and an organization that excels and is efficient, effective, innovative and relevant in serving the nation, SANSA has six values, namely;

1. Service
2. Teamwork
3. Excellence
4. Integrity
5. Respect
6. Personal Growth

The SANSA EO directorate will play a strong role in aligning the EO innovation chain and its participants towards achieving solutions to meet the national outcomes like improved planning, improved resource management, improved readiness for disaster management and improve information products for health, safety and security.

SANSA adopted the following broad strategic goals:

• Goal 1: World-class & efficient services and societal benefits (Societal Capital)
• Goal 2: Cutting-edge research, development, innovation, technology & applications (Intellectual Capital)
• Goal 3: Effective development of human capital, transformation and science advancement (Human Capital)
• Goal 4: Globally competitive national space industry (Economic Capital)
• Goal 5: Make South Africa a recognised global space citizen (Global Capital)

The core competencies of SANSA Earth Observation Directorate:

• The core competencies of SANSA Earth Observation Directorate:
• Cutting-edge research and development in earth observation/remote sensing
• Expertise in remote sensing image processing and application development
• Archiving of satellite imagery
• Linkages with international space agencies and satellite data providers
• Satellite data reception capability due to availability of satellite ground receiving station with state-of-the-art earth observation infrastructure
• Expertise in human capital development and science advancement

Earth Observation has globally taken unprecedented importance and there is an increased focus and expenditure on Earth System monitoring activities. These efforts are led by various international bodies including the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) which is co-chaired by South Africa, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). The common theme for all these activities is to globally coordinate Earth observation efforts with the primary objective of benefiting humanity in a sustained and Earth-friendly manner as the world strives to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. SANSA, as one of the contributing agencies of the South African Earth Observation Strategy (SAEOS), fulfils this strategic objective through the SANSA Earth Observation directorate. In collaboration with external partners, the directorate will drive six operational themes, as follows:

1. Environmental Management: With an ever increasing global population and the associated increase in demand for natural resources and the consequent degradation of the environment, satellites are central to ensuring better and sustainable livelihoods. Services include environmental monitoring and assessment; global change monitoring; environmental policy formulation and enforcement.


2. Environmental Management: With an ever increasing global population and the associated increase in demand for natural resources and the consequent degradation of the environment, satellites are central to ensuring better and sustainable livelihoods. Services include environmental monitoring and assessment; global change monitoring; environmental policy formulation and enforcement.


3. Resource & Asset Management: SANSA uses satellites to monitor various resources including water, agricultural produce and livestock, energy, and fish stock, to name a few. Satellites are also used for asset and infrastructure management including the monitoring of roads, dams, bridges, logistics fleet, etc.


4. Planning, Service-delivery Monitoring & Development: Large area and rapid satellite imaging give a bird’s eye view that allows for better planning, service delivery monitoring and decision-making. We use satellite images for rural development, urban planning, informed decision-making and policy-making. Areas of application include human settlement planning, environmental policy formulation and enforcement.


5. Health, Safety & Security: Satellites provide a very broad birds-eye-view that is useful for cross-border health, safety and security monitoring. As an example, satellites can be used to monitor mosquito-borne diseases like malaria; cross-border theft; drug trafficking; African peace-keeping; crime prevention and monitoring. Satellites are also used for national security and intelligence gathering.


6. Disaster Management: In an earth that is so prone to disasters, satellites are used for disaster forecasting, monitoring, assessment and mitigation. All these lead to reduced loss of life and disruptions, huge cost savings and mitigate even more severe human catastrophes. Recently, SumbandilaSat was used to monitor the floods in Namibia and the effects of the tsunami in Japan. Space weather changes can also cause adverse effects on communication, electric power distribution, and aviation.


7. Industrial Services: Different services are offered that benefit industry e.g. geo-spatial data for industry usage.

Figure 1: Six Operational Themes

The above operational themes are underpinned by cross-cutting R&D and HCD. This is to ensure continual improvement of the services and products being offered as well as increase SANSA’s internal skills base and client skill base.

Human Capital Development (HCD) is embedded in all SANSA programs. In order to increase the use of EO services and products, an aggressive HCD programme needs to be pursued with a view to increase the number of geo-informatics practitioners within government and the wider community. In addition this will create transferable skills in software development, data and image processing, and other related areas. The SANSA EO directorate will focus on smart instruments to stimulate this strategy, including the establishment of university programmes, supporting studentship programmes, and conducting training programmes. The annual trainee/student enrolment numbers within the NSP are projected to increase to 33 (3-year target) and to 55 (5-year target). PhD and Masters training will be supported through bursaries and post graduate co-supervision with the universities. A high focus will also be given to honours training with the intention of creating a larger pool of EO practitioners for government. This also needs to be understood in the context of the broader university education and other government department alignment to address the shortage of skills in specific areas. To achieve this will require the utilisation of various HCD and R&D instruments in partnership with other stakeholders. These instruments should include, at the bare minimum, a Centre of Excellence, a Research Chair, and focussed research grants and student bursaries in Earth Observation. Further, a dedicated multi-institutional EO degree programme (i.e. National Earth Observation Programme - NEOP) needs to be established.

SANSA's Earth Observation Directorate will in future offer scholarships for full-time honours, Master's and doctoral studies to top achievers in Earth Observation, for academic performance as well as their research potential. SANSA also supports students doing research through the provision of satellite data. Free satellite data is also offered to undergraduate students for practical purposes.

A wide range of earth observation potential services are available. These include remote sensing expertise through research and development in satellite image processing, provision of satellite imagery and satellite based valued added products

SANSA produces various publications in journals, the popular media and as conference proceedings.