SAFARI 2000 is an international regional science initiative being developed for Southern Africa to explore, study and address linkages between land-atmosphere processes and the relationship of biogenic, pyrogenic or anthropogenic emissions and the consequences of their deposition to the functioning of the biogeophysical and biogeochemical systems of southern Africa. This initiative is being built around a number of on-going, already funded activities by NASA, the international community and African nations in the southern African region. The goal of SAFARI 2000 is to understand the key linkages between the physical, chemical and biological processes, including human activities, that comprise the southern African biogeophysical system. More specifically, SAFARI 2000 aims to:

• characterize, quantify and understand the processes driving biogenic, pyrogenic and anthropogenic emissions in southern Africa;
• combine atmospheric transport and chemistry models with ground-based, airborne, and satellite-based observations to validate and extend our understanding of the transport and transformations of these emissions;
• identify where, when and how the emissions are deposited, and determine their impacts, and,
• lay the foundation for monitoring longer-term climatic, hydrological, and ecosystem consequences of these biogeochemical and physical processes.