Mawün NRT: New platform to measure precipitation in real-time

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This free and publicly accessible web service allows monitoring of the intensity and spatial distribution of precipitation events in continental Chile.

By: CR2 Communications

The Water Resources Observatory of Araucanía of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of La Frontera, in a collaborative effort with the Center for Climate and Resilience Science CR2, has developed a new platform that allows interactive and real-time visualization of precipitation occurring in the country.

The name of this new platform comes from “mawün,” which in Mapudungun means “rain,” and “NRT,” an internationally used acronym for products that are available in near real-time.

“This platform will be an important complement to Mawün, an existing web service that shows the spatial and temporal distribution of daily, monthly, and annual precipitation for a historical period, but which did not have near real-time event monitoring,” explained Mauricio Zambrano, CR2 researcher and academic at the University of La Frontera.

Zambrano detailed that Mawün-NRT plays a crucial role in early identification and precise characterization of the occurrence of extreme precipitation events, providing a sense of security by monitoring associated risks, such as floods, landslides, and damage to critical infrastructure.

This first version of Mawün-NRT includes four state-of-the-art products: atmospheric weather from multiple sources almost in real time, Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM, PERSIAN Dynamic Infrared Rain Rate, and Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM.

Additionally, it allows visualization of precipitation schedules from rain gauges belonging to different Chilean institutions, such as the General Water Directorate, the Meteorological Directorate of Chile, the National Agroclimatic Network, and the Center for Advanced Studies in Arid Zones.

The platform is free and publicly accessible. It can be accessed at the following link: Mawün-NRT. A basic guide for its use is also available.