Sensors for TWIGA: New observations in Africa to produce actionable information for agriculture, energy generation, and disaster response.

TWIGA stands for "Transforming Water, weather, and climate information through In situ observations for Geo-services in Africa". It is a four year project, funded by the European Commission through its H2020 program. The 18 partners (see: www.twiga-h2020.eu) aim to develop new services in support of the development of Africa's human and natural resources. Often, these new services sensors will be based on MacGyver-like sensors.

In general, we seek to produce ground-based information that strengthens satellite products and/or models. Some examples that will be presented:

- Use consumer-grade lightning sensors in a network setting locate individual lightning strikes through multilateration.

- A simple device that counts the incidence of raindrops on a simple piezo-element may produce information concerning the assumptions underlying satellite-based rainfall products.

- Consumer grade GNSS receivers that interpolate ionospheric disturbances between IGS stations

- Evaporometers, developed at Oregon State University, to determine general moisture state of the environment, which can be related to phyto-sanitary risks.

The TWIGA project is open in the sense that we invite anyone with interesting ideas that could serve the project's general mission, to cooperate. We offer access to a large set of observations sites that can readily be used for testing any new concepts.