The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B7. Beijing 2008 
1306 
classes) of the historical year. The classes represent below 
(class 1), normal (class 3) and above (class 5) normal vegetation 
conditions respectively. Finally, the DMP is an indication of the 
dry matter biomass increase (growth rate) and is expressed in 
kg/dry matter/ha/day. More details are given in the user guide. 
The examples shown demonstrate the versatile nature of the 
freeware toolbox using the (near real-time) data available 
through GEONETCast. This is highly relevant with respect to 
e.g. environmental monitoring and provides meaningful 
information to assess flood, drought and agricultural conditions, 
all of which are currently major issues in Africa. Using simple 
batch routines additional toolbox functionality can easily be 
created to address the specific User’s need. As more data- 
information will be released through GEONETCast it is 
anticipated that more import and preprocessing routines will be 
developed. Using off the shelf equipment to build a low cost 
ground receiving station, in conjunction with free data (when 
applying for a research and education license through 
EUMETSAT) and the freeware toolbox described here a 
number of essential prerequisites are fulfilled to develop 
(through capacity building) a sustainable basis for regular 
operations and research. Dowman (2008) stated that: “Disasters 
are not only physical; they may occur when potentially valuable 
initiatives collapse due to inadequate resources”. GEONETCast 
is such a potential initiative and the toolbox described here 
provides a resource to incorporate a variety of basic 
environmental data of various formats (MSG-level 1.5, BUFR, 
GRIB/GRIB2, HDF4/5, ascii tables) for further spatial and 
temporal analysis into a GIS. 
6. CONCLUSIONS 
Through GEOSS, by means of GEONETCast, data has come 
within reach of users anywhere on the globe. If no efficient 
processing tools are available the full strength of the system 
might not be utilized. The toolbox development effort described 
here is a low-cost alternative to retrieve regular data and 
products relevant to a broad range of environmental and 
hydrological applications by non-meteorological organizations 
in less developed countries dealing with geo-spatial temporal 
data analysis. It is anticipated that these tools are further 
developed using Open Geospatial standards and are integrated 
in IWLIS 3.4 by means of a convenient user interface. To 
overcome the limitation of 24/7 real time transmission - 
reception, especially with respect to construction of time series 
(and the investment needed for local storage) it should be 
considered that GEONETCast will also be used to provide data 
from e.g. the Eumetsat archive. A user in need of e.g. 1 year of 
12.00 UTC daily MSG images should be able to send this 
request and the data is delivered to this user via GEONETCast. 
Furthermore, there is a need to expand the local receiving 
capability, especially at universities in less developed countries. 
Strengthening the role of the universities will guarantee the 
supply of graduates that utilize the potential of GEONETCast 
and can apply their knowledge and skills later as employees of 
the different organizations dealing with the societal benefit 
areas. 
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Remark: all web addresses presented in the article have been 
accessed during the last week of February 2008. 
REFERENCES 
Bartholome, E. (editor)(2006): VGT4Africa user manual. 1 st 
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