Pretoria - Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa will on Thursday bid farewell to the overwintering team (Gough61) heading for Gough Island on the SA Agulhas II.
The Gough61 overwintering team, which will leave from Cape Town, will spend 14 months on the island conducting research on weather forecasts which impact South Africa.
South Africa has maintained a meteorological station on Gough Island since 1956.
“Weather observation on Gough Island contributes significantly to the South African Weather Service (SAWS) ability to forecast and predict (particularly adverse and destructive) weather for South Africa,” the department said.
The department said South Africa is one of the signatories to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention and SAWS is responsible for providing weather as well as warning services to the second largest Ocean area on the globe known as METAREA Seven.
The area spans from the Equator and extends to Antarctica in the South and from mid- Atlantic in the West to the mid-Indian Ocean in the East.
The weather station is permanently occupied by, on average, six South Africans (the only people on the Island). The team of consists of meteorologists, a medical orderly, a diesel mechanic and a communications technician. – SAnews.gov.za
