This document describes a new approach called ENACTS to improve access to climate data and information at the local level in Africa. ENACTS combines data from weather stations with global satellite datasets to generate high-resolution climate datasets for the entire continent. It has been implemented in several countries and provides users with online tools to access, analyze and visualize historical climate data as well as seasonal forecasts. The goals of ENACTS are to build the capacity of national meteorological services, improve the availability and quality of climate data, and promote its use among decision makers.

1. A New Innovation to Enable
NMS Provide Climate
Information at Local Level
Tufa Dinku
tufa@iri.columbia.edu

2. Outline
I. The value of Climate Data
II. Challenges to Availability Climate Data
III. The ENACTS Approach
IV. What is Next

3. • PuCng observed and anEcipated climate into context;
• Assessing climate-related baseline risks;
• Understanding the nature of climate variability and trends;
• Understanding the impacts of climate on agricultural
producEon;
• Improving crop producEon forecasts for agricultural planning
and food security management;
• Index-based agricultural insurance that allows farmers to
spread risk;
• ….
I. The Value Climate Data

4. II. Challenges to Availability of Climate Data
• Number of weather staEons not adequate over many
parts Africa
• Most staEons are located along main roads
è Limited availability climate informaEon and services
to the rural community
• Serious gaps in observaEons (missing data)
• QuesEonable data quality
• Limited access and use of the available data

5. Declining/Interrupted ObservaEons
Declining investment Civil unrest
Declining volunteer stations

6. What about globally available datasets?
• Most of the global products themselves depend on naEonal
observaEon:
§ Therefore suffer from the the same problem:
Average (2001
to 2010)
number of
stations per
100km X 100km
grid box used
by GPCC
gridded rainfall
product

7. What about globally available datasets
The global datasets may not represent local features well because
of spaEal resoluEons or/and insufficient observaEons.
StationSatellite

8. III. The ENACTS Approach
StaEon Satellite
Combined
Combining station data with global proxies: Rainfall

9. Steps
1. Assess available data 2. Perform quality check
3. Merging

10. ENACTS Outputs
• Built capacity of NMS
• Quality controlled stations data
• Over 30/50-years of rainfall and temperature data for
every 4km grid across each country:
o Now data available where there are no stations

11. Advantages of ENACTS Data
Rainfall Stations used in
ENACTS
Rainfall Stations available
globally

12. Advantages of ENACTS-based products
CMAP ENACTS

13. ENACTS is much more than just data:
The Three Pillars of ENACTS
Improve Availability
• Build capacity of NMHS
• Quality Control station
data
• Combine station data
with proxies
• Improve seasonal
forecast
E N A C T S
Enhance Access
• Install IRI Data
Library
• Develop online tools
for data analysis and
visualization
• Create mechanisms
for data sharing
Promote Use
Engage users:
• Raise awareness
• Build capacity of
users to understand
and use climate info
• Involve users in
product development

14. Improving Access: Map Rooms

15. Improving Access: Climate Analysis Tool
Monthly mean TMax

16. Improving Access: Climate Monitoring Maproom
From left to right: dekadal rainfall, dekadal rainfall anomaly,
cumulative(since the start of the current season) anomaly, and the
Standard Precipitation Index (SPI)
Dekadal rainfall Dekadal anomaly Cumulative anomaly SPI

17. Improving Access: Climate Monitoring Tool

18. Probability of wet OND season
during El Nino
Improving Access: Climate Forecast Tool
i. Explore potential impacts of ENSO/IOD phases

19. Improving Access: Climate Forecast Tool
ii. Translates seasonal forecast from tercile
to rainfall amounts
+

20. More Outputs
• Installation of the IRI Data Library at NMHS
o A powerful tool for generating climate information
• Unprecedented online access to information products:
o Satisfies the needs of many users
o Overcomes (partly) the challenges of data access
• Engagement with user communities

21. ENACTS Countries
ENACTS Countries:
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Madagascar
Mali
Rwanda
Tanzania
Zambia
Kenya
Uganda
Malawi

22. What is Next?
2. Expand ENACTS to the rest of Africa
1. Strengthen ENACTS where it has been implemented
Ø Generate daily climate time series and products
Ø Add more climate variables (RH, PET/ET, sunshine…)
Ø Add sector-specific Maprooms: Agriculture, Water,
Disaster, Health, …
Ø Improve accuracy, spatial resolution and presentation of
seasonal climate forecasts

23. Tufa Dinku
tufa@iri.columbia.edu
web: iri.columbia.edu
@climatesociety
…/climatesociety
ThankYou