NAN-AE- 17
Space
By Sumaila Ogbaje
Abuja, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) The Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet), says it will continue to work with the Astronomical Society of Nigeria (ASN) to produce accurate space information for national development.
The Director-General, Dr Anthony Anuforom, said this at the 6th National Conference and Award of Fellows by ASN on Thursday in Abuja.
The conference theme was ‘’Astronomy and Space Science and Technology in a Developing Economy’’.
Anuforom, who was conferred with the award of Fellowship by the society, established that there was relationship between climate system and what happened in the outer space.
He said he believed that NiMet could collaborate with ASN considering the developments in space unknown to man.
“The challenge we scientists have, especially in our area is that anything we do not see, we are not aware that it exists and this thing is affecting us.
“These things are measurable; there are radiations all over us as we are talking but we do not see them with our ordinary eyes but they do exist and affect us.
“You will not believe that there are some phenomena happening at the outer space that do affect even your telecommunication system and power grid system.
“Some of these things happen and people do not know where they are coming from.
“So, these are areas that we need to do research and get adequate data and information.
“It will help us to better manage our infrastructure, telecommunications and power, among others.’’
Anuforom said that as part of its global climate observing system, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) was integrating the space weather to look at all the phenomena that affect climate.
He said that unknown to many people, a lot of physical phenomenon that happened within the earth’s atmosphere were influenced by what happened in space.
NiMet boss expressed appreciation to the society for the recognition, saying he felt humbled and that it is a call to do more.
He also commended the staff of NiMet for their commitment which, he said, made it possible for the agency to achieve the successes it had recorded.
“The commitment of the staff of the agency also made it possible for us to achieve results because everybody is committed to doing their jobs at NiMet,’’ Anuforom added.
The President of ASN, Prof. Chidi Akujor, said that the basic knowledge of astronomy and space science was important, especially the applications in economics, science, weather and agriculture.
According to him, the society is facing the challenges of the lack of the relevant instruments unlike in smaller countries such as Ghana and Rwanda.
“We have been trying to set up an observatory now in Nsukka, in Enugu State and Kujama in Kaduna State for sometime now using old Nitel dishes.
“We have not succeeded much on that because of lack of support from government and lack of funding,’’ he said. (NAN)
OYS/ACO/NKO
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Edited by Oluleye Abiodun/Nkechi Okoronkwo