OVERCOMING BANDWIDTH AND SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS LIMITATIONS
TO ACCELERATE APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING AND
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING FOR SUSTAINABLE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT:
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM EGYPT, NIGERIA AND SOUTH AFRICA
Gilbert L. Rochon1, Magdy Wahab2, Gamal El Afandi3, Ado Dan-Isa4, Happy Sithole5, Khomotso
Kganyago5, Souleymane Fall1&6, Joseph Quansah7, Akilah Martin8, Bereket Araya1&7, Chetan
Maringanti1&7, Cliff Robinson1&7, Kaiem L. Frink9 and Jean Pierre Antelo9
1
Purdue University-Information Technology, Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, Purdue Terrestrial
Observatory. West Lafayette, Indiana, USA Contact: rochon@purdue.edu
2
Cairo University-Faculty of Science, Dept. of Astronomy & Meteorology, Cairo, Egypt
3
Al Azhar University, Dept. of Meteorology & Astronomy, Cairo, Egypt
4
Bayero University, Dept. of Computer Engineering- Kano, Nigeria
5
Center for High Performance Computing (CHCP)- CSIRO, Cape Town, South Africa
6
Purdue University, Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
7
Purdue University, Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, W. Lafayette, IN, USA
8
DePaul University, School for New Learning, Chicago, Illinois, USA
9
Purdue Research Opportunities Program (PROP), West Lafayette, IN, USA
ABSTRACT
Sixty-two years after the first photos of earth taken by a
camera aboard a V-2 rocket in October, 1946, and fortyeight years since the first CORONA satellite images were
captured, the status of remote sensing research and
applications within the African continent has made dramatic
progress. Many African countries now have remote sensing
research centers, within government agencies, research
institutes and universities. Some countries in Africa
currently have earth observing and/or telecommunications
satellites in orbit and/or have such assets in various planning
stages.
The authors document such progress, in addition to the
constraints to further applications of remote sensing for
sustainable development in Africa, with special reference to
data distribution constraints. Moreover, the authors address
the urgency for bandwidth improvements within the African
continent, so as to enable sustainable development initiatives
to benefit from advances in high performance computing,
required for ab initio near-real-time analysis of satellitedata.
Such capabilities, it is argued, are propaedeutic for timecritical initiatives, such as vulnerability assessment, disaster
preparedness and mitigation, emergency response,
humanitarian assistance and post-calamity reconstruction,
associated with a wide array of biogenic and anthropogenic
disasters. Case studies of advances in infrastructure for
satellite remote sensing and high performance computing,
with implications for sustainable development in Africa, are
provided from Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
Index Terms— remote sensing, high performance
computing, Africa, bandwidth, digital divide, sustainable
development, satellites
1. AFRICA AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
As recently as 2002, Africans represented one in eight of the
world’s population; but only represented one in a hundred of
the world’s internet users [1]. Citing 2001 data from the
International Telecommunications Union, Chinn & Fairlie,
in their 2007 study of computer and internet usage in 161
countries, published in Oxford Economic Papers, show that
within North America, there were 61.1 personal computers
per 100 people, as compared to 1 personal computer per 100
people in Sub-Saharan Africa. They explain this disparity in
computer penetration rates partly by noting that for the
period 1999-2001, the three-year average per capita income
in the USA was $33,645, as compared to merely $3,077 per
capita income for the same period in Sub-Saharan Africa
[2]. As of March 31, 2008, according to Internet World
Stats, cited by Fuchs and Horak [3] in their Table 3, internet
users in Africa accounted for 3.6% of the world’s total users,
while comprising 14.3% of the world’s population. Africa’s
2008 population is estimated at 955,206,348 and the total
world population is currently estimated at 6,676,120,288.
Although disparity in per capita internet usage persists for
Africa, it should be noted that for the period 2000-2008,
while the rest of the world experienced a respectable internet
use growth rate of 280.6%, Africa, for the same period
experienced an internet use growth by a remarkable
1,030.2%. [3, op. cit.]. Contributory factors to the
phenomenal rise in internet use in Africa may be the
proliferation
of
cybercafés
[4]
and
computer
repair/reconditioned sales shops that have emerged in urban
centers within Africa (e.g.
“Internet
Café
Cyber
Café
Directory”
http://www.internetcafedirectory.co.za/ for South Africa,
Lesotho and Swaziland).
2. STATUS OF REMOTE SENSING IN AFRICA
Since the late 1990s, several African countries have
deployed satellites for earth observation, television and radio
broadcasting, telecommunications, weather prediction and
military applications, as determined to be important vehicles
for security and for accelerated economic and industrialized
growth. Egypt’s satellites, NileSat 101 (launched on 28
August 1998) and NileSat 102 (launched on 17 August
2000), in collaboration with the European Space Agency
(ESA), provide digital communication, TV and radio
broadcasting to countries in North Africa, South Europe
and the Middle East. EgyptSat-1, developed and launched
by Ukraine’s Yuzhnoe State Design Office in 2007 from
Kazakhstan, provides data and information for scientific
research. The country is working to launch EgyptSat 2 and
SaharaSat, also for scientific research applications.
Algeria’s AISAT-1 earth imaging satellite was launched (28
November 2002) by a Russian Kosmos M3 rocket, as the
first Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) to be used
for the monitoring and management of both anthropogenic
and biogenic disasters. Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) is
working on launching AlSAT-2A and AlSAT-2B highresolution Earth observation satellite in 2008 and 2009
respectively http://wwww.scienceinafrica.co.za .
The Telemedicine project, which is a project of Nigeria’s
National Space and Research Development Agency
(NASRDA), is currently operational via NigComSat. The
NigComSat itself, in an effort to make its services widely
known and available, is currently installing at least 3
Community TeleCenters (CTCs) in each state in Nigeria.
Leasing of transponders on ku and C bands to private
companies is on-going. The ka is proposed to be for trunking
from Germany. Direct to home (TV) is in the pipeline. The
use of the NigComSat for tracking of airplanes is also being
proposed in the wake of the plane that disappeared in the
Cross-River State of Nigeria. This would be extended to cars
to improve vehicle security.
South Africa is the first African country to independently
build and launch a satellite. The SUNSAT-1, which was
designed and built by the University of Stellenbosch and
launched in 2000 by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), is a low orbit micro satellite
providing high resolution images suitable for agriculture and
forestry. The SUMBANDILAsat, another earth imaging
satellite by South Africa, was launched on 17 June 2007 by
Russia, and is designed to be useful in monitoring and
managing disasters such as oil spills, floods, droughts, fires
and
to
facilitate
telecommunications.
http://www.space.gov.za/ . South Africa’s SunSpace,
University of Stellenbosch and Belgium’s University of
Leuven are collaborating on the Microsatellite Multispectral
Imager (MSMI), which when launched will be a significant
contribution to hyperspectral earth observation.
http://www.space.gov.za/wsw/Olivier_CT.pdf
Investment and applications in satellite technologies have
also been spearheaded by regional organizations such as the
Regional African Satellite Communications Organization
(RASCOM), which funded the launch of RASCOM-QAF 1
in 2007 and the soon to be launched RASCOM-QAF 2.
These assets will provide
fixed
voice, data
telecommunications and internet access, as well as
broadcasting satellite services to the entire
African
continent, segments of Europe and the Middle East.
http://spaceflightnow.com/ Stoney [5] predicted that twenty
countries will have earth observing satellites by 2010, not
counting the proliferation of communication satellites.
Although there are over thirty remote sensing research
laboratories in Africa at universities, at technical institutions
and at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(UNECA) Regional Remote Sensing Centers, ground
stations for acquisition of real-time remotely sensed data that
can be utilized for time-critical events in Africa are still
quite rare. South Africa’s CSIR Satellite Applications Center
receives Landsat data. NARSS Ground station in Aswan,
Egypt receives CNES’ SPOT and EgyptSat-1 and their
Cairo facility receives NOAA’s AVHRR. The Egyptian
Meteorological Authority (EMA) also has a geostationary
dish. NATO’s Science for Peace (SfP) Program awarded a
Planning Grant to a coalition of Purdue University’s
Terrestrial Observatory- West Lafayette, Indiana, USA,
Boğaziçi University’s Kandilli Observatory in Istanbul,
Turkey and Earthquake Research Center and Egyptian
counterparts for development of a plan to establish the
Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory in Cairo, which if it were to
receive implementation funding, would include a Meteosat
receiving station at Al Azhar University and a tracking
station at Cairo University for NASA’s MODIS, Aqua and
Terra, AVHRR, EgyptSat -1, the CSA’s Feng Yun 1D and
the Chinese-Brazilian C-BERS.
3. HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING IN AFRICA
On Dec. 4, 2007, IBM announced that it was donating a $2
million 14-teraflop Blue Gene/P Supercomputer to South
Africa’s Center for High Performance Computing (CHCP)
in Cape Town, http://www.chpc.ac.za/, a unit of the Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Meraka
Institute, which will augment CSIR’s pre-existing 160 dual
core node e1350 Linux cluster, two shared memory
computers with Power4+ CPUs, as well as a second phase
bid procurement scheduled for Fall, 2008. The mission of
CHCP is “the provision of high-end computing and
computing expertise for all research in South Africa,
including disciplines ranging from the natural sciences,
medicine, engineering and social sciences.” In the first
quarter of 2008, Telecom Egypt announced that it selected
IBM Global Services to design its new data center to
provide services to its 10.4 million customer base [6].
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23765.wss
Moreover, another Blue Gene/P will be installed within
Egypt’s National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space
Sciences (NARSS) http://www.narss.sci.eg/. There has
emerged a significant international movement emphasizing
the need for “intermediate” or “appropriate” technology for
Africa [7], partially in reaction to the earlier transfer of
patently inappropriate, maladapted or regionally irrelevant
technology, which may have served the interests of the
exporting industrialized nations, but not those of Africa.
Such transfers in the recent past frequently ignored local
environmental and climatic conditions, the need for training
and the availability of spare parts. What we are now
witnessing, given the extent of globalization, growing
ubiquity of communications and increasing complexity of
contemporary problems, is the realization that in certain
contexts, “state-of-the-science” technologies (e.g. high
performance computing and satellite remote sensing) are not
only appropriate for transfer to Africa, but fundamentally
essential to accelerating sustainable growth, developing a
technologically sophisticated workforce and addressing a
wide array of seemingly intransigent socio-economic
disparities.
4. CONNECTIVITY IN AFRICA
In his May, 2000 article, “Making the Connection: Africa
and the Internet,” Jensen observes, “The development of the
Internet is at a critical point in Africa. Web-based services
could help accelerate the continent’s economic growth and
aid poverty alleviation, but these tools place large demands
on an underlying infrastructure that is currently incapable of
servicing them.” [8] PriMetrica, Inc. in 2004 reported that
bandwidth transfer rates between Africa and Europe were
only 2,456 Mbps, and 1,673 Mbps between Africa & the
USA/Canada, as compared with bandwidth transfer between
USA/Canada and Europe at 504,512 Mbps. Moreover,
“third world solidarity” from an internet perspective is
mythological, since there is no direct connectivity between
Africa, Asia and Latin America. All such traffic must be
routed through Europe and/or the USA/Canada. [9] Several
groups have positioned themselves in the vanguard of the
struggle to enhance such connectivity (e.g. Electronic
Geophysical Year- eGY-Africa http://egy.org/egyafrica.php
& the Global Earth Observing System of Systems- GEOSS)
http://earthobservations.org/
5. DISASTER MITIGATION
Numerous entities have been established, whose missions
are wholly or partially directed to mitigating, managing or
providing early warning for a wide range of disasters
globally, regionally or exclusively focused on Africa. These
include the European Union-sponsored Africa Observatory
for Sustainable Development, which “covers environment
and natural resources food security, crop production and
crisis
prevention and
management.”
http://wwwtem.jrc.it/African_Observatory/index.htm;
the
United
Nations Platform for Space-Based Information for Disaster
Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER)
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/unspider/index.html; the UN
Food & Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) African RealTime Environmental Monitoring Information System
(ARTEMIS)
http://www.fao.org/sd/eidirect/eire0007.htm
and its Global Information and Early Warning System
(GIEWS) http://www.fao.org/giews/ENGLISH/index.htm,
the United Nations Disaster Relief Organization (UNDRO),
USAID’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS),
http://www.fews.net/Pages/default.aspx,
the
UN
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), inter
alia.[10] Real-time remote sensing is of particular relevance
to disaster early warning & mitigation. After a crisis occurs
is usually too late to begin the ordering process for satellite
data. Even with the promise of pro bono satellite imagery
provided under the International Convention, such data,
while greatly appreciated and very useful for damage
assessment and post calamity reconstruction, would be even
more useful were it proactively available for pre-disaster
planning, vulnerability assessment, early warning, mitigation
initiatives
5.1. Biogenic Disasters
Remote Sensing has been successfully utilized as a tool to
enable research, preparedness, prevention, mitigation and
operational response to biogenic disasters in Africa,
including those relating to food security [11], fires, floods,
storms, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, drought, locust
infestations, epidemics and earthquakes.
5.2. Anthropogenic Disasters
Man-made disasters have resulted both from inadvertence or
insouciance, such as hazardous chemical and oil spills, as
well as from deliberate acts, including vandalism, warfare,
and acts of terror. Remote sensing’s role with respect to
these events is limited to support and enabling of ex post
facto emergency response, damage assessment and
reconstruction, just as in the case of natural disasters and
accidental man-made disasters; however, remote sensing of
course does not have the capacity for early warning of such
catastrophes. Other applications of remote sensing to
anthropogenic disasters include deforestation, biodiversity
depletion, and pollution of water, soil and air resources.
High performance computing’s role, in enabling near-realtime analysis of remotely sensed and in situ data from
multiple sources, will come to full fruition when deployed as
an operational adjunct to decision support during major
crises.
6. AFRICAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The constraints on achieving, within the near future,
sustainable development in Africa, despite the continent’s
wealth of natural resources, include the deeply rooted
negative residual impacts of colonialism, the slave trade,
apartheid, continued neocolonial economic exploitation,
widely spread
poverty, endemic infectious diseases,
persistent armed conflict and, in several instances, vestigial
leadership approaches predicated on acquisitiveness for
wealth and power, rather than upon distributional justice and
the people’s right to self-determination. With that backdrop,
the optimal path to effectively propel the continent toward
sustainable growth and prosperity must perforce include
deployment of state-of-the-science technological advances to
support poverty alleviation, job creation, food security,
public health and safety, human rights, water resource
conservation, reliable energy, environmental sustainability
and a broad academic pipeline for augmentation of the
intelligentia.[12] The interdisciplinary applications of
remote sensing and/or high performance computing are
evident from the breadth of literature addressing applications
to sustainable aquaculture in Africa [13], sustainable public
health & epidemic mitigation [14], urban sprawl, precision
farming, crop forecasting, forestry & natural resource
management, soil erosion, biodiversity assessment, water
quality monitoring and coastal zone morphology, to name a
few.
7. BRIDGING AFRICA’S DIGITAL DIVIDE
Although the emphasis herein has been focused on the
cutting edge technologies, namely high performance
computing and satellite remote sensing, and their legitimate
role as drivers and catalysts for sustainable economic
development, it is admittedly apparent that access to such
technologies and their immediate associated benefits will
initially accrue to Africa’s academic community,
governmental agencies and the urban elite. The need for
enhanced teledensity diffusion to rural areas and to the least
developed countries in Africa, as noted by Mbarika [15],
will be essential in order to ultimately and effectively
transcend the digital divide. Nigeria’s recent launch of
NIGCOMSAT-I,
for
enhancement
of
Africa’s
telecommunications, augurs well as an alternative to more
expensive and politically sensitive landline installation.
8. REFERENCES
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