On June 8, 2016, the trainees from South Africa completed the entire training program arranged by RESTEC. During their one month stay in Japan, they learned about the policy concerning Japan’s earth observation, the theory of SAR, various applications of remote sensing, the roles of the private sector, activities of small satellite development, etc.
The facilities they visited included:
◇Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC) / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
◇Tsukuba Space Center (TKSC) / JAXA
◇Earth Observation Center (EOC) / JAXA
◇Fuchu Plants / NEC Corporation
◇Isogo Works/ Japan Marine United Corporation
◇Ohta Plants / Niigata Power Systems Co., Ltd.
One of the highlights of the program was lectures and training concerning synthetic aperture radar (SAR) by two eminent SAR experts in Japan. While Prof. Shimada of Tokyo Denki University, lectured on SAR theory and provided training using Sigma Sar algorithm developed by himself, Dr. Ouchi gave a lecture on a wide variety of SAR applications for maritime and oceanographic purposes.
Ms. Nosiseko Masiwi, from the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) , the head of the delegation, stated, “The South African delegation is grateful to be part of this interesting and informative training program. The quality of the program and the excellent manner in which training was conducted by RESTEC is quite impressive. The training provided a clear understanding of the fundamentals of the SAR imagery (ALOS and ALOS-2), its processing chains and its applications. As a country that is faced with various challenges like food security, the knowledge we have acquired from this program will enable us to contribute immensely to some of the government initiatives in addressing these challenges. This is also beneficial to our stakeholders as we will now be able to provide solutions to their specific needs and challenges, efficiently and timeously. This will not only benefit South Africa but Africa as a whole.
This program was fully funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). RESTEC would like to express its appreciation for this precious opportunity provided by JICA.
RESTEC would like to extend its appreciation to ESRI JAPAN, IHI Corporation, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) , Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU) , Japan Space Systems (JSS), Kokusai Kogyo Co.,Ltd. (KKC), NEC Corporation, Niigata Power Systems Co., Ltd., Pasco Corporation, Tamagawa Univ., Tokyo Denki Univ., and JAXA for their support and commitment in ensuring that this training program becomes a success.
