South Africa National Space Agency (SANSA)

Description of Legal Entity
SANSA was established to promote the use of space and cooperation in space-related activities while fostering research in space science, advancing scientific engineering through the development of human capital and provide support to industrial development in space technologies. The Space Science Programme (one of 6 core programmes within SANSA) leads multi-disciplinary space science research and applications. Key functions include fundamental and applied space science research, the support of space facilitated science through data acquisition, the coordination and administration of scientific data, and the provision of space weather and magnetic technology products and services on a commercial and private basis. Through the Space Science Programme, SANSA contributes to the worldwide network of magnetic observatories responsible for monitoring the Earth’s magnetic field, and participates in global scientific projects. The programme also provides leadership in post-graduate student training as well as providing science advancement, public engagement, and learner and educator support with STEM subjects.
SANSA’s research activities are focused in the areas of ionospheric characterisation and modelling, plasma physics, geomagnetism, middle and upper atmosphere, space weather research and radiation belt studies. Through SANSA’s space weather centre (a regional warning centre of the International Space Environment Service (ISES)) space weather services such as frequency predictions and space weather indices for radio communication and electric power industry are provided.