Rwanda could soon be home to a publicly accessible data center on weather, climate, and water resources. This would serve the needs of education, government, as well as private sector.
Dr. Didier Ntwali, the Division Manager of Earth and Space Science at the Rwanda Space Agency (RSA), confirmed the development to The New Times in an exclusive interview.
The announcement comes just months after RSA purchased Rwanda Climate Observatory project which was previously under the Ministry of Education (MIT) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He explained that the agreement was to allow MIT to source funds for the instruments and Rwanda to provide staff and other facilities for the climate observatory.
The University of Rwanda and MIT educational collaboration was also part of the agreement. They exchanged curricula as well as their capabilities in job-creating, especially in climate areas.
The observatory is located at Mt. Mugogo gathers atmospheric observations to aid in meteorological forecasting, monitor climatic conditions and to build local scientific and engineering capabilities.
“The observatory is very important given the current paucity of meteorological measurements and the complete lack of high-frequency greenhouse gasses (GHG) measurements anywhere in Africa and above all in equatorial Africa,” he said in an emailed response.
He added: “Given the difficulty of accessing mount Karisimbi, the Government of Rwanda agreed to build a cable car that would facilitate access to Mount Karisimbi, while an interim station at Mount Mugogo was set up for training and capacity building.”
Ntwali also said that RCO data was added to the NASA-funded Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment. (AGAGE) is a global atmospheric measurement programme.
“Rwandan scientists have gained the capability, using computer modelling and observatory data, to calculate regional trace gas sources, sinks, climate change, and air pollution,” he said.
The benefits of a data center include the ability for local capacity to profit from revenue-yielding opportunities to mitigate climate change through the application of the ability quantify regional and local climates and greenhouse gas sources.
Ntwali explained that RSA will use satellite data and observatory data to monitor the climate in Rwanda and the region. This will allow RSA to give advice to the government and other stakeholders.
RSA will use climate observatory data to validate satellite data and provide sound science advice on future policies regarding climate change and air pollution.
“The research on climate and weather needs high spatial and temporal resolution data. As the RCO data are limited to cover the big area, RSA will improve the current knowledge of African emissions by combining RCO and satellite data,” the email response added, “This will help cover a big area beyond Rwanda and the region to fill the gap of small spatial resolution of RCO data.”
Going forward, Ntwali asserted that the idea is to “Build up a knowledge base needed to take advantage of schemes designed to bring economic benefits from reducing effects of climate change.”
eashimwe@newtimesrwanda.com
Source: rnewtimes
