Congo

A study carried out by the University of Leicester has shown the amount of rainfall many African areas receive has drastically changed in the last ten years. It is an essential factor for vegetation, which plays a vital role in African livelihoods.

The international team of researchers has mapped the entire African continent south of the Sahara regions using satellite mapping technology. The analysis of  the rainfall and greenness of plants in African regions suggests that "some parts of the Congo, Nigeria and Madagascar appear to receive much less rainfall now compared to 10 years ago," said Professor Heiko Balzter, Director of the Centre for Landscape and Climate Research at the University of Leicester and co-author of the study.

The analysis of 10 years of satellite data has been conducted together with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the Institute of Electromagnetic Sensing of Environment of the National Research Council of Italy...

A new analysis of data derived from various satellite sensors shows that Congo's rainforest, the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world, has suffered from long-term drought over the past ten years. The study included data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, the NASA/JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat), and NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center. It revealed a large-scale decline in greenness of the analyzed areas by calculating the "Enhanced Vegetation Index".

NASA elaborates on their website: "Scientists use the satellite-derived "greenness" of forest regions as one indicator of a forest's health. While this study looks specifically at the impact of a persistent drought in the Congo region since 2000, researchers say that a continued drying trend might alter the composition and structure of the Congo...

China Great Wall Industry Corp will launch the Democratic Republic of the Congo's first satellite, which will also be developed by China, before the end of 2015, according to a contract signed on 17 November 2012. The Chinese company is the country's only authorized provider of commercial satellite launch services for international clients. The contract for CongoSat 1, a communications satellite to be developed and manufactured by the China Academy of Space Technology for the National Network of Satellite Telecommunications of the African country, was inked in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

The CongoSat 1 design will be based on the DFH 4 satellite platform, capable of covering the Democratic Republic of the Congo and all the central and southern parts of the African continent. China will also build ground control and training facilities and will train satellite-control personnel for the client.

This deal marks the second time that China has exported a satellite to...