Ghana has been urged to adopt state-of-the-art technologies and strike international partnerships to gather data on the effects of the sun on satellites, technology and human life.
According to the Founding Director of the Centre for Space Science and Engineering Research at Virginia Tech, US, Professor Wayne A. Scales, disturbances in space were impacting life on earth.
Delivering a lecture in Accra on Tuesday, the professor who works at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University, said the data would help the country mitigate the negative impact of space weather.
The lecture, attended by scientists and academics, was on the theme “The effects of space weather on Global Navigation satellite systems such as GPS and remote sensing applications”.
Organised by the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), it formed part of series of activities to herald GSSTI’s 10th anniversary celebration.
Prof. Scales explained that there were weather processes in space and they could impact the world negatively in terms of GPS communications when radiations occur.
For instance, he said that changing conditions of the sun and in space affected the Global Positioning System (GPS), thereby causing errors in digital maps relied on by pilots and drivers for directions.
In sub-Saharan Africa, he said there were few instruments such as weather radar to make measurements of the space environment and study weather in the upper hemisphere.
“When you look at the two regions where space weather is the most violent or turbulent. They’re at the equator, or they’re either at the North or the South Pole. Your country (Ghana) is at the equator.
“There’s a lot of very interesting space weather phenomenon that occurs and you have a great opportunity to make contributions to the science, but also to be innovative and develop new technologies to be able to make measurements in space,” he said.
According to Prof. Scales correct measurement of space happenings could help the country address issues such as flooding and other matters on natural resources.
“This is because you can use that technology as a spacecraft to look downward and then do earth sciences. And also that type of infrastructure places you in a position where you can very effectively train students if you partner with other universities,” he said.
Prof. Scales said a weather radar was being built in Nigeria, and that Virginia Tech was open to partnerships to build similar infrastructure in Ghana as well as build the capacity of scientists.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
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