Extreme weather monitoring at the Technical University of Vienna
These articles were published on 29th of July 2007 at the Terra Daily News about Planet Earth and Science and Development Network. These further describe products which we produce and investigate here at the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at the University of Vienna. Links to the originally articles are provided below.


http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/african-mapping-highlights-risk-of-drought-and-flood.cfm
&
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Extreme_Weather_Monitoring_Boosted_By_Space_Sensor_999.html

West African Instruments

Let me just shortly introduce you some of West African Instruments which I saw and heard first time in my life on the African Festival in Wien (source of information: Mamadou and Wikipedia). These were introduce by a musicion Mamadou Diabate who came to Austria from Burkina Fasso in 2000. Since then he recorded serveral albums and presents West African music in European countries. So here we go:

Balafon = pentatonic or heptatonic (that means that its scale does have 5 instead of common 7 distinct notes) resonated frame xylofon (thats the thing which you can see at the background of the second picture), usually has 17 - 21 keys. This instrument is typical for Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and The Gambia.

N'goni = string instrument, something like lute. (on both pictures). This instrument is several houndred years old. Originally, was played by young men during hunting ceremonies. There exists various types of N'gonis instruements, which may have from 4 to 10 strings. N'goni is probably the most popular instrument in Mali.

Doundoun = the generic name for a family of West African Drums (picture will come later)