The Africa Reference Frame Project –
AFREF
&
South Africa’s TrigNet System
Richard
RichardWonnacott
Wonnacott
International
InternationalCommittee
CommitteeononGNSS
GNSS
Pasadena,
Pasadena,California
California
99December
December2008
2008
The Africa Reference Frame Project –
AFREF
Overview
Overview
• Background
• Rationale
• Objectives
• Institutional acceptance
• Structure
• Progress
• Present situation
• Comments and concerns
• Conclusion
Background
Background
• Fundamental point of departure for projects, services or
products requiring geo-spatial information is a uniform & reliable
co-ordinate reference frame.
• Over 50 countries in Africa each with their own geodetic
reference system and frame and some with 2 or more systems.
• Although there are many areas of conflict there are also areas
where peace has been restored and require a lot of development.
• It is known that many private commercial enterprises are setting
up their own reference frames particularly in the oil and mining
industries.
• AFREF is, therefore, an African initiative to unify the geodetic
reference frames of Africa based on the ITRF through a network
of GNSS base stations at a spacing such users will be at most
within ~1000 km of a base station.
Rationale
Rationale
• Surveying & Mapping
• Security
– Unique international boundary definition
• Science
– Atmospheric research
– Geophysics research
• Disaster mitigation
– 59% of disasters in Africa are hydro-meteorological in nature
• drought and flooding (climate monitoring & weather prediction)
• Infrastructure planning & development
• Gap in global coverage & contribution to Global
Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) part of GEO etc
Objectives
Objectives of
of AFREF
AFREF 11
– To determine a continental reference system for
Africa consistent and homogeneous with the global
reference frame of the ITRF as a basis for national 3-d
reference networks.
– To realize a unified vertical datum and to support
efforts to establish a precise African geoid.
– To establish continuous, permanent GNSS base
stations at a spacing such that the users will be
within 1000km of a base station and that data is freely
available to all nations.
– Understand the necessary geodetic requirements of
participating national and international agencies.
Objectives
Objectives of
of AFREF
AFREF 22
– To determine the relationship between the existing
national reference frames and the ITRF to preserve
legacy information based on existing frames.
– To provide a sustainable development environment
for technology transfer so that these activities will
enhance the national networks and other
applications.
– Assist in establishing in-country expertise for
implementation , operation, processing and analysis
of modern geodetic techniques, primarily GNSS.
Structure
Structure 11
The structure reflects the broad concepts of AFREF that:
– It is to be designed, managed and executed from within African;
– It is to be organized on a regional basis;
– It is to be executed at the national level; and
– Technical expertise and support will come from the international
geodetic community such as IAG, IGS etc.
Structure
Structure 22
CODI
Chair plus Representatives from
CAFREF International Organizations
EAFREF IAG UNECA CODI
Technology Advisory
NAFREF IGS FIG
Group
SAFREF UNAVCO ISPRS
Made up of scientists
from Africa WAFREF UNOOSA ICA
IAG Sub Commission 1.3d NEPAD ??
HartRAO
OACTS RCMRD RECTAS
NMO’s and NMO’s and NMO’s and
Prof Bodies Prof Bodies Prof Bodies
Progress
Progress to
to Date
Date 11
• Cape Town March 2001:
– to gauge level of interest among NMO’s in region
– 8 countries attended and supported project
– IAG/IGS, EUREF, NIMA supported project
• Lusaka July 2002
– UNOOSA / USA sponsored series of workshops on Use and
Applications of GNSS
– One of the outcomes was recommendation to
• Establish a continental reference for Africa or AFREF consistent
with ITRF
• Windhoek Dec 2002
– 8 Southern and East African countries represented
– Representative from UN ECA CODIST also present
– Prepared what has become known as “Windhoek Declaration”
Progress
Progress to
to Date
Date 22
• Addis Ababa August 2004:
– UNECA CODI-ST Accepted “Windhoek Declaration”
• Other meetings
– Nairobi October 2004
– Cairo April 2005 FIG Working Week
– Accra March 2006 FIG Regional Conference
• Cape Town July 2006:
– Technical Workshop
– Co-sponsored by 6 organizations incl. IAG, UNAVCO, UNOOSA
– ~40 delegates and 15 presenters
Progress
Progress to
to Date
Date 33
• Nairobi August 2007 and August 2008:
– Technical Workshops
– Organized by RCMRD in conjunction with the University of Lisbon,
the University of Beira-Interior (Portugal) and Hart RAO
– Dealt with GNSS reference stations and processing of GNSS data
• Johannesburg June 2008:
– Joint meeting to discuss co-operative efforts between:
• AFREF (Geodesy)
• Africa Array (Geophysics)
• IHY (Space physics)
• AMMA-GPS (Meteorology)
– Very successful meeting
Institutional
Institutional Acceptance
Acceptance 11
• UN ECA CODIST (Committee on Development Information,
Science & Technology)
– Have adopted the Windhoek Declaration
– Created a Working Group to deal specifically with AFREF
• UN OOSA (UN Office for Outer Space Affairs)
– Have recognized the importance of AFREF for variety of applications
– Supported travel for June 2008 workshop
• IAG (International Association of Geodesy)
– Have created structures to co-ordinate the project and provide
technical assistance and expertise
Institutional
Institutional Acceptance
Acceptance 22
• IGS (International GNSS Service)
– Has strong commitment to support AFREF
• FIG (International Federation of Surveyors)
– Sponsored workshops in Cairo and Accra
• UNAVCO (University NAVSTAR Consortium Inc.)
– Have strongly supported the project through travel support.
Present
Present situation
situation 11
– There are about 20 IGS stations in Africa
• CDDIS gives about 30 stations
– Some of these in clusters
– Some not operational
– Some appear to be experimental eg GLONASS only with very little data
– There are others which have been installed at academic
institutions or airports but are not registered as IGS stations.
• Many of these stations need little or no upgrade to meet IGS
standards.
• South Africa has network of 49 continuous base stations.
– There are a number of contractors setting up own local systems
such as in oil and mining industry .
Present
Present situation
situation 22
Number of activities underway to install permanent
base stations or move towards ITRF
Algeria Angola
Benin Botswana
Cameroon Egypt
Ethiopia Ghana
Kenya Lesotho
Malawi Moroco
Mozambique Namibia
Nigeria Rwanda
South Africa Swaziland
Tanzania Tunisia
Uganda Zambia
Present
Present situation
situation 44
Some known installed
and planned GNNS
station June 2008
(Not all stations shown
for clarity)
Installed
Planned
Concerns
Concerns 11
• Funding
– Would appear to be funds available but how does one
access such funds?
– Seem to be able to get money for workshops etc
– Manufacturers willing to donate equipment
– Difficult to get money for long term running costs
• Political Buy-in
– Get AFREF recognised by African political leaders
• Co-ordination of efforts
– There are a number of groups installing or are prepared
to install
– Lack of information on these initiatives
– Result in duplication of effort
Concerns
Concerns 22
• Internet in Africa
– Africa’s population : ~1 bn
– Percentage of population with access to Internet : ~3.6%
– Average Connection speed: 56 kbps
– Reliabity : Poor
– Routing: Indirect
– Cost of bandwidth in Africa vs. US: 1000 greater
– Yearly increase in internet speed worldwide: 30%
– Africa’s connectivity : 10-20 years behind
– Forecast : The gap is widening
Extracted from:
symmetry - September 2008 - Mapping the Digital Divide - Les Cottrell
www.symmetrymagazine.org (Volume 5 Issue 4)
Comments
Comments
• Don’t loose sight of aims & objectives of AFREF
– Groups installing for specific scientific reasons in name
of AFREF but not keeping primary objectives of AFREF
in mind.
– NMO’s excluded or superficially included.
– AFREF is a project to be managed and executed by
African NMOs and Universities with International
assistance
• IGS
– Supported various workshop
– Assisted with preparation of CfP
– Obtained financial support from UNAVCO for Cape
Town Workshop July 2006 and other travel
– Highlight importance of AFREF at every opportunity
– Point of contact with “assisting agencies” – both
technical and financial
TrigNet – South Africa’s Network of
Permanent GNSS Base Stations
Overview
Overview
• Background
• Distribution
• Services offered
• International project participation
• Non-positioning applications
Background
Background
• The Chief Directorate Surveys and Mapping is mandated to
establish and maintain a National Control Survey Network.
• Currently have ~58000 passive control points throughout
the country.
• Commenced with the installation of network permanent
GNSS base stations in 1999.
• Currently have 49 stations continuously feeding 1 sec dual
frequency data to a central control centre near Cape Town.
• Of the 49 stations 12 are providing GPS/GLONASS data and
the rest GPS only.
Distribution
Distribution at
at Nov
Nov 2008
2008
Thohoyandau
Post process and Real time
data
Ellisras
Pietersburg Phalaborwa
Proposed Post processing and
Real time data BOTSWANA MOZAMBIQUE
Nylstroom Steelpoort
Int GNSS Service (IGS) Stations
Nelspruit
Brits Groblersdal
Mafikeng Shoshaguve
Pretoria Middelburg
Hartebeesthoek Bronkhorst
NAMIBIA Krugersdorp
Benoni
Kuruman Vereeniging SWAZI
Heidelberg LAND
Ermelo
Upington
Bethlehem Ulundi
Bloemfontein Ladysmith
Kimberley
Greytown
Springbok MooiRiver
Pietermaritzburg Stanger
LESOTHO Durban
Prieska De Aar
Ixopo
Scottburgh
Aliwal North
Beaufort West Umtata
Calvinia Queenstown
Graaff-Reinet
Langebaanweg
Sutherland Grahamstown
East London
Malmesbury
Cape Town Stellenbosch
George Port Elizabeth 200 KM
Hermanus
Products
Products
• Post Processing RINEX Data
– 1 sec L1, L2 Daily and hourly files
– 5 sec L1 only Daily and hourly files
– 30 sec L1, L2 Daily files
– Customized RINEX files
• Real Time RTCM Data
– DGPS via NTRIP country wide (VRS Network solution)
– RTK via NTRIP
• Single base from all stations
• VRS Network solution from three clusters
– Gauteng
– KwaZulzu Natal
– Western Cape
• All data and services are free of charge!!!!!!!
International
International Projects
Projects
• International GNSS Service Real Time Working
Group (IGS RTWG)
– Trying to establish whether or not a Global Real Time service
is feasible
• International GLONASS Service (IGLOS)
– Tracking of GLONASS satellites for orbit estimation and
integration of data into IGS framework
• Constellation Observing System for
Meteorology, Ionosphere & Climate (COSMIC)
– GPS/MET research - meteorological data collection, using the
Global Positioning System
Non-Postioning
Non-Postioning
Applications
Applications
TrigNet data has been used for:
• Geophysics
• Plate techtonics
• Geo-hydrology
• Space weather
• Ionosphere mapping
• Meteorology
• Weather forecasting
• Climate monitoring
THANK YOU
http://geoinfo.uneca.org/afref
http://www.trignet.co.za
