As part of the strategy of training and continuous training of Angolan specialists in space engineering, on 20 June, the ANGOTIC Forum 2019 themed “Making the Future” held in Luanda at the Talatona Convention Centre. Representatives of the Angolan Space Agency known as the Management Office of the National Space Program (GGPEN), Infrasat (a business unit of Angola Telecom), and the Franco-Italian company Thales Alenia started the project “OpenGeoLab (OGL)”. OGL consists of installing a platform that, among other tasks, will allow Angolan technicians to acquire or improve their knowledge on the application of Earth observation satellite images, to have a base of practical and real training on image processing, and to become acquainted with the acquisition, processing and use of images from EO satellites such as Sentinels, Landsat and others
Thus, the platform will also allow the training of technicians. Locally the images can be applied to the study of the environment, agriculture, monitoring of the power transmission network of hydroelectric power plants, control of shipping, illegal fishing, oil spillage, etc.
In this way, the strategy that has been adopted is to invest in tools that would ensure the specialised training of GGPEN technicians, thus enabling them to understand the main elements of a space mission related to observation satellites such as ANGOSAT-3.
It should be noted that observation satellites are one of the technologies chosen by the United Nations, with a view to helping countries meet 7 of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).
OGL is a platform for researchers and software developers to understand, test, and deploy updated components or new scientific applications that can be tailored to the user’s needs on Earth observation issues. It allows the development of geospatial services in key areas such as data processing, analysis and visualisation, thematic mapping and development of geographic applications.