# The Status of Space Weather Infrastructure and Research in Africa
## 2 Distribution of Space Weather Infrastructure in Africa
### Space Weather Monitoring
#### 2.1.1 Global Navigation Satellite Systems Receivers  
GNSS has been used in all forms of transportation: space stations, aviation, maritime, rail, road, and mass transit. PNT plays a critical role in telecommunications, land surveying, law enforcement, emergency response, precision agriculture, mining, finance, scientific research, and so on. Space weather is one of the major limiting factors for the precision and reliability of PNT services from GNSS. Geomagnetic storms and substorms, solar flares, and ionospheric irregularities can result in PNT deterioration. Since the ionosphere is a very dynamic medium and due to its dispersive nature, dual-frequency GNSS measurements may effectively be used to derive robust and accurate information about the ionospheric state under quiet and perturbed space weather conditions. Ground-based measurements enable mapping of the total ionization of the ionosphere (i.e., TEC). The hosts of most of the equipment installed for space weather research have a free data policy for research purposes, so the accessibility of data via the internet is not a challenge. Most of the dedicated high-rate GNSS receivers required for GNSS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitoring (GISTM) were donated by US Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) and Boston College [4]. The deployments took place mostly between the years 2007 and 2014. These instruments are primarily used for L-band monitoring of scintillations on GNSS signals traversing through the ionosphere. Figure 1 and Table 1 below show the distribution of GNSS ionospheric scintillation receivers across the continent. The map in Figure 1 shows a limited number of GISTMs in North and Southern Africa, which are mid-latitude regions with a low incidence of ionospheric scintillation. East Africa stands out as the area with the largest number of instruments for GISTM, followed by West Africa [5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14]. The line running from the geographic longitude \(10^{\circ}\) to the east in Figure 1, Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5, is the geomagnetic meridian. The USA equipment donors (SCINDA) and their collaborators deployed most of the instruments in Central Africa, which is the region with the highest incidence of ionospheric scintillation. Due to problems with maintenance, power, security, and internet access, there is a considerable gap in the currently operating ionospheric scintillation monitoringinfrastructure in large parts of Africa. The GISTM stations and their host countries are listed in Table 1.  
Other than the above-listed stations, the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) also operates Novatel GSV4004B scintillation receivers at several other locations in South Africa and on nearby islands, namely at Louisvale (28.49\({}^{\circ}\) S, 21.23\({}^{\circ}\) E), Grahamstown (33.32\({}^{\circ}\) S, 26.5\({}^{\circ}\) E), Gough Island, (40.34\({}^{\circ}\) S, 9.88\({}^{\circ}\) W), and Marion Island (46.87\({}^{\circ}\) S, 37.85\({}^{\circ}\) E). Since 2017, SANSA has installed Novatel GPSstation6 and Septentrio PolaRx5S multi-constellation GNSS scintillation receivers for real-time data streaming from each of the following locations in Africa: Kilfi (Kenya, 3.62\({}^{\circ}\) S, 39.84\({}^{\circ}\) E) [15], Kabwe (Zambia, 28.46\({}^{\circ}\) N, 14.44\({}^{\circ}\) E), Lagos (Nigeria, 6.52\({}^{\circ}\) N, 3.38\({}^{\circ}\) E), and Busitema (Uganda 0.75\({}^{\circ}\) N, 34.04\({}^{\circ}\) E). SANSA is currently working on the deployment of a few more such receivers in Central and East Africa (Gaborone in Botswana, Tororo in Uganda, and Bahir Dar in Ethiopia) to provide essential real-time data to the Regional Space Weather Warning Centre of the International Space Environment Service (ISES) at the South African National Space Agency in Hermanus. Figure 1: Distribution of GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitors (GISTM) deployed by Boston College (USA) and US Air Force Research Laboratories in Africa (SCINDA 2007–2014) and by the South African National Space Agency (SANSA).