Precipitation | Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini

Curvas IDF Chile

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context and motivation

Extreme precipitation events are expected to intensify under global warming, particularly at sub-daily time scales, increasing the risk of flash floods and infrastructure failure. Reliable estimation of these extremes is therefore essential for hydraulic design, urban drainage planning, and flood risk management. Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves remain the standard engineering tool for quantifying the relationship between rainfall intensity, duration, and frequency of occurrence.

Traditionally, IDF curves have been derived from rain gauge observations under the assumption of stationarity and often based on relatively short sub-daily records. These limitations can lead to biased estimates of extreme rainfall, particularly in regions with sparse monitoring networks, complex topography, or strong climatic variability. Moreover, ongoing climate change challenges the validity of stationary assumptions commonly used in engineering practice.

Recent advances in gridded precipitation datasets provide spatially continuous and temporally consistent information that complements conventional observations and improves the representation of precipitation extremes. Integrating these datasets with modern statistical approaches enables the development of more robust and spatially consistent IDF estimates, particularly in countries such as Chile, where climatic gradients and terrain complexity strongly influence rainfall patterns.

To operationalise these advances, the web platform was developed by the former student Cristóbal Soto Escobar and I with the support of the and the , by providing standardised, nationally consistent estimates of extreme rainfall across continental Chile. By combining multiple datasets and updated statistical methodologies within an accessible web environment, the platform supports evidence-based infrastructure design and risk assessment under evolving climatic conditions.

Description

is a web platform designed to support the computation and visualization of Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves across continental Chile. The platform integrates modern datasets and statistical methodologies to provide robust estimates of extreme precipitation across diverse climatic and topographic regions, including areas with limited observational coverage.

Main screen of web platform

By delivering nation-wide, spatially consistent IDF information, the platform supports infrastructure design, flood risk assessment, urban drainage planning, and climate resilience studies. It also promotes transparent and reproducible analyses, reducing the technical burden traditionally associated with extreme value modeling and facilitating the practical use of advanced statistical methods in engineering and applied hydrology.

Curvas IDF functionality

provides a set of operational tools designed to support engineering design, hydrological analysis, and climate risk evaluation.

Core capabilities include:

Computation of IDF curves for any location in continental Chile using statistically consistent methodologies.
Interactive visualization of rainfall intensity estimates for multiple durations and return periods.
Implementation of stationary and non-stationary statistical models, enabling users to evaluate the potential influence of changing climatic conditions on extreme precipitation.
Access to annual maximum precipitation intensities (Imax) derived from both gridded datasets and in-situ rain gauge observations.
Spatial exploration of extreme rainfall patterns, facilitating comparison of intensity values across regions with contrasting climates and topography.
Download of computed intensity values and associated parameters for use in engineering design studies, hydrological modeling, and risk assessments.

These functionalities streamline workflows that traditionally required specialized statistical expertise and extensive data processing, thereby broadening access to reliable extreme rainfall information for both technical and operational users.

Methodological framework

The methodology implemented in is fully documented in a 2026 scientific article published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. This study represents one of the most comprehensive national-scale analyses of precipitation extremes in Chile, combining multiple gridded datasets with quality-controlled rain gauge observations to characterize rainfall intensity under both stationary and non-stationary climate assumptions.

The platform is based on a rigorous statistical framework that integrates observational and model-derived precipitation data to estimate extreme rainfall intensities across the country. Annual maximum precipitation intensities are computed using both stationary and non-stationary Gumbel probability distributions, covering the range of durations and return periods commonly required in hydrological and hydraulic design.

The analysis incorporates:

Five high-resolution hourly gridded precipitation datasets, representing different methodological approaches to precipitation estimation.
More than 160 quality-controlled rain gauge stations, providing reference observations for validation and bias correction.
Bias-adjusted precipitation intensities, ensuring consistency between gridded and in-situ estimates.
Trend detection techniques, including the modified Mann–Kendall test, to evaluate long-term changes in extreme rainfall behavior.

The resulting intensity estimates are calculated for durations ranging from 1 to 72 hours and for return periods between 2 and 100 years, covering the range typically required for hydraulic and hydrologic design standards. This integrated methodology captures regional differences in precipitation extremes and reflects the strong spatial variability associated with Chile’s climatic and topographic diversity.

Data sources

combines information from both observational and gridded precipitation datasets to ensure broad spatial coverage and statistical robustness.

Gridded precipitation datasets

IMERG v06B
IMERG v07B
ERA5
ERA5-Land
CMORPH-CDR

In-situ observations

Hourly precipitation records from quality-controlled rain gauge stations distributed across continental Chile.

These complementary datasets enable reliable estimation of extreme rainfall intensities in both data-rich and data-sparse regions, improving the spatial consistency and practical applicability of IDF curves nationwide.

Relevance and applications

Reliable estimates of extreme precipitation are essential for the safe design and operation of critical infrastructure. The Curvas IDF platform provides a standardized, transparent, and nationally consistent reference for evaluating rainfall extremes in Chile, particularly in the context of increasing climate variability and the prolonged drought conditions observed since 2010.

By integrating advanced statistical methods, multiple data sources, and an accessible web interface, the platform supports evidence-based decision-making in:

Hydraulic and hydrologic engineering design
Flood risk and hazard assessment
Urban stormwater management
Climate adaptation planning
Environmental and infrastructure resilience studies

In operational terms, the platform transforms complex statistical analyses into accessible, decision-ready information that can be directly applied in engineering practice, scientific research, and public-sector planning.

Reference

Soto-Escobar, C., Zambrano-Bigiarini, M., Tolorza, V., & Garreaud, R. (2026). . Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 30(1), 91–117. .

Article on gridded IDF curves published in HESS

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On January 12th, 2026, published our article entitled . This study investigates how spatial patterns, temporal trends, and record length in hourly precipitation data affect annual maximum intensities estimated with stationary and non-stationary models across a climatically and topographically diverse region.

Motivation

Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) curves are essential for designing infrastructure that must safely manage extreme rainfall, including urban drainage systems, culverts, and flood protection works. Traditionally, these curves depend on long-term observations from rain gauges. In many parts of Chile, however, such records are sparse, unevenly distributed, or too short to support robust design. This study evaluates whether modern gridded precipitation datasets can provide reliable alternatives for estimating rainfall extremes across Chile’s diverse climatic and topographic regions.

What is new in this study

The study analysed -for the first time in Chile- data from 161 quality-controlled hourly rain gauges together with five widely used gridded precipitation products:

IMERG (versions v06B and v07B)
ERA5
ERA5-Land
CMORPH-CDR

Then, a new systematic evaluation framework was developed to:

Correct systematic biases in gridded precipitation estimates using local observations.
Detect long-term changes in extreme precipitation intensity.
Compare conventional (stationary) and trend-aware (non-stationary) statistical models for estimating design storms with return periods from 2 to 100 years and durations from 1 to 72 hours.
Assess how the length of the precipitation record influences the reliability of design estimates

Flowchart summarising the methodology used in this study

What we found

Several findings are directly relevant for engineering practice and hydrological planning:

Extreme precipitation does not mirror average precipitation patterns. The most intense short-duration storms occur in central–southern Chile, even though total annual precipitation increases farther south.
Mountains experience substantially higher extremes. For longer storm durations, the Andes show markedly higher intensities than nearby lowland areas, indicating that design values derived from valley stations may underestimate risk in mountainous terrain.
Recent decades show declining extremes in central Chile. This pattern is consistent with the prolonged regional drought and reduced frequency of winter storm systems.
Traditional statistical assumptions remain adequate for design. Differences between stationary and non-stationary models were generally small, suggesting that standard engineering approaches remain appropriate in most applications.
Shorter records can still provide reliable estimates. In many cases, 20 years of data produced results comparable to those obtained from 40-year records, which is operationally important in data-limited regions.

Why this study is important for infrastructure and risk management

The results demonstrate that carefully evaluated gridded precipitation datasets can extend reliable rainfall design information to areas without rain gauges. This capability is particularly relevant in Chile, where steep topography and strong climatic gradients create large spatial variability in extreme rainfall.

To facilitate practical use, the authors implemented these findings in an operational web platform that provides location-specific IDF curves for continental Chile: . This tool enables engineers, planners, and public agencies to access consistent design rainfall estimates, supporting safer infrastructure development and more resilient water management under changing climatic conditions. We hope this tool might be incorporated in future design manuals in Chile.

Main screen of the web platform

The full article can be found here: .

Infographic summary, created by Google NotebookLM (23-Apr-2026)

XXVII Congreso Chileno de Hidráulica: Course 'Using R for spatio-temporal data analysis: application to daily data CR2Met v2.5'

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

R Course: Spatiotemporal Data Analysis

From October 20th to 25th, the was held at the Faculty of Engineering of Concepción (FI UdeC). The congress was convened by the Chilean Society of Hydraulic Engineering (SOCHID) and organized by the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Concepción. The event consisted of courses, scientific presentations, and lectures featuring the participation of engineers, academics, and students.

On October 21th, I taught the course Using R for spatio-temporal data analysis: application to daily data CR2Met v2.5, which was attended by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as public and private sector professionals.

Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini at Foro UdeC

UFRO team at Foro UdeC

UFRO team with Dr. Oscar Link (UdeC)

Mawün-NRT: Near real-time gridded precipitation for Chile

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Motivation

In an era characterized by increasing climate variability and the intensification of extreme weather events, the need for accurate and timely precipitation data has never been more critical. While several websites and applications offer weather forecasts that are improving every day, there is a critical gap in readily available post-event precipitation data.

Description

Mawün-NRT (in Mapuzungun, “mawün” means “rain”) is a free and publicly accessible web platform ( ) that provides a user-friendly visualisation of the spatio-temporal distribution of precipitation events for continental Chile in near real-time.

Main screen of web platform

Mawün-NRT was developed by the former student Rodrigo Marinao and I with the support of the and the , to supplement the existing web platform Mawün ( , which is focused on historical precipitation data.

Three state-of-the-art precipitation products are included in this first version of Mawün-NRT:

i) the near-real-time Multi-Source Weather (MSWX-NRT, 3-hourly, 0.1°),

ii) PERSIANN Dynamic Infrared–Rain Rate (PDIR-Now, hourly and 0.04°) and

iii) the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERGv07 and IMERGv06, half-hourly, 0.1°) in both the Early and Late versions.

In addition, hourly data from hundreds of rain gauges of different Chilean institutions (e.g. DGA, DMC, Agromet, CEAZA) are collected in near real-time by the Vismet web platform ( ) and used in Mawün-NRT to compare the gridded precipitation estimates with the corresponding in situ values, as a soft measure of the uncertainty in the precipitation estimates.

The near real-time capabilities of Mawün-NRT allows decision makers to evaluate which product provides better identification of the spatial area really affected by the precipitation event, fostering a timely decision-making and a proactive response to evolving weather conditions. A case study shows the monitoring of an extreme event that affected the south-central area of Chile in June of this year 2024, with devastating societal and economic impacts.

A detailed tutorial can be found .

Some example applications can be found .

Two posters at AGU 2022

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

During the week of December 12 to 16th, 2022, I participated in the Conference , held in the city of Chicago ( USES). This is the most important conference worldwide in the area of Earth Sciences, and it is held annually.

On this occasion, I presented two posters:

. hydroRTS is a new package for the that is about to be submitted to [CRAN]( - project.org/). This package allows you to work efficiently with large amounts of gridded data that have an hourly, daily, monthly, or annual time frequency. This work summarizes a large amount of work that I have carried out since 2013. However, only the collaboration of Civil Engineer Sebastián Bernal, who graduated in Civil Engineering in 2022 from the Universidad de la Frontera, made it possible to organize systematically and adequately document a set of functions that are useful to the global community of Hydrologists and Earth Scientists. This collaboration was only possible thanks to the funding provided by the , directed by Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini.
. is a new package for the that is about to be submitted to [CRAN]( - project.org/). This package allows you to perform a multi-objective calibration of any hydrological/environmental model (actually, a model from any subject area), whether this model is implemented in R or requires to be executed from the system console in a local PC or in a server. This package has been developed by Civil Engineer Rodrigo Marinao, who is a graduate of Civil Engineering at the Universidad de la Frontera, student of the of the same house of studies, and research assistant at the . The collaboration with Rodrigo Marinao started during the Hydrology course in the Civil Engineering degree, and has continued uninterrupted since then. This work also received funding from .

Finally, during this conference I took the opportunity to discuss various topics with Dr. Camila Álvarez Garreón (CR2), Dr. Mauricio Galleguillos (U. Adolfo Ibáñez) and Dr. Juan Pablo Boiser (CR2), who also participate in the .

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Article on Water Balancece in the Nile Basin using gridded P and ETa accepted for publication in JoH-RS

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The article has been published on the journal.

This article evaluates the performance of eleven state-of-the-art precipitation (P) products and seven actual evapotranspiration (ETa) products over the Nile Basin using a four-step procedure: (i) products were evaluated at the monthly scale through a point-to-pixel approach; (ii) streamflow was modelled using the Random Forest machine learning technique, and simulated for well-performing catchments for 2009–2018 (to correspond with ETa product availability); (iii) ETa products were evaluated at the multiannual scale using the water balance method; and (iv) the ability of the best-performing and ETa products to represent monthly variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) was assessed through a comparison with GRACE Level-3 data.

The application of the water balance using the best-performing products captures the seasonality of TWS well over the White Nile Basin, but overestimates seasonality over the Blue Nile Basin. Our study demonstrates how gridded and ETa products can be evaluated over extremely data-scarce conditions using an easily transferable methodology.

Mawün: Historical gridded precipitation for Chile

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Context

Over recent decades, gridded precipitation products have become an essential data source for hydrological and climate studies, particularly in regions where conventional observations from rain gauges are sparse or unevenly distributed. This situation is especially relevant in Chile, where complex topography, such as the Andes mountain range, and large geographic contrasts create significant challenges for monitoring precipitation using traditional measurement networks alone.

Description

, meaning “rain” in Mapuzungun, is a web platform designed to support the exploration, visualisation, and analysis of spatially distributed precipitation estimates (SDPEs), commonly referred to as gridded precipitation datasets, for continental Chile during the historical period 1981–2020. The platform was created by the former student Rodrigo Marinao and I to simplify access to complex precipitation datasets and to enable users to quickly obtain actionable information without the need for specialised data processing workflows.

Developed by the with support from the , Mawün provides a centralized environment where researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers can interactively examine precipitation patterns across Chile’s diverse climatic regions.

Main screen of web platform

Mawün functionality

Mawün v2.0 provides a suite of tools designed to support exploratory analysis, validation, and data extraction workflows commonly required in hydrology, climatology, and water resources management. Core capabilities include:

Interactive visualization of the spatial distribution of precipitation from multiple gridded products, enabling rapid assessment of regional patterns and variability.
Direct comparison between precipitation time series from gridded datasets and in-situ observations recorded at rain gauge stations.
Point-based data extraction, allowing users to obtain precipitation time series for any location in continental Chile.
Area-based data extraction, enabling the download of precipitation time series aggregated over user-defined polygons, such as watersheds or administrative regions.
Event-focused analysis, including the download of daily precipitation maps for specific precipitation events (up to 20 consecutive days), with optional spatial cropping.
Climatological visualization, supporting the display of long-term average annual and monthly precipitation patterns.
Multi-dataset comparison, facilitating the evaluation of consistency and differences among gridded precipitation products and observational records.

These tools are designed to reduce technical barriers to data access and to support reproducible analyses, rapid diagnostics, and evidence-based decision-making.

Data Sources

The datasets available through Mawün originate from both national and international initiatives and combine information derived from satellite observations, atmospheric reanalysis systems, and, in many cases, statistical calibration with ground-based rain gauge measurements. By integrating these complementary sources, the platform offers a consistent and spatially comprehensive representation of precipitation variability across the country over the last four decades.

Rain gauge observations integrated into Mawün were compiled by the from the national hydrometeorological monitoring networks operated by the and the . These observational records provide the reference measurements used for validation and calibration of gridded precipitation products.

The platform currently provides access to the following gridded precipitation datasets covering (in most cases) the period 1981–2020:

CR2MET v2
CR2MET v2.5beta
IMERG v06B
ERA5
ERA5-Land
CHIRPS v2
CMORPH v1
MSWEP v2.8
MSWX v1.0

Tutorials

Geenreal description in Spanish: .
User-manual in Spanish: .
Study cases: .

Article on Random Forest for merging satellite-based datasets with gorund observations published in RSE

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The article was accepted for publication in December 2019 and made available online on January 2nd 2020 in the journal.

This work presents the Random Forest based MErging Procedure (RF-MEP), which allows to combine information from ground-based measurements, satellite-based precipitation products, and topography-related features to improve the representation of the spatio-temporal distribution of precipitation, especially in data-scarce regions. RF-MEP is applied over Chile for 2000-2016, using daily measurements from 258 rain gauges for model training and 111 stations for validation. Two merged datasets were computed: RF-MEP3P (based on PERSIANN-CDR, ERA-Interim, and CHIRPSv2) and RF-MEP5P (which additionally includes CMORPHv1 and TRMM 3B42v7). Our results suggest that RF-MEP could successfully be applied to other regions and to correct other climatological variables. The RFmerge R package, which implements RF-MEP, is freely available online at .

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Conference: When, where, and how much did it rain?

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Conference: When, where, and how much did it rain?

On January 22th 2019, Dr Hylke Beck gave an entitled “When, where, and how much did it rain?” at the Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) in Temuco. In this presentation Dr. Beck presented , the first fully global precipitation dataset with a 0.1º resolution derived by optimally merging a range of gauge, satellite, and reanalysis estimates.

Dr Hylke Beck (BSc, MSc, PhD) is an experienced researcher specializing in earth observation, hydrological modeling, and flood and drought forecasting. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious international journals, including Nature Climate Change and Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and collaborated with several world-renowned scientists in the fields of hydrology and meteorology. At Princeton University, where he is currently employed, he is developing a global flood and drought warning system with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. He has produced multiple innovative climate data products, including the groundbreaking Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) product, which has already been used by 500+ institutions worldwide.

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Oral presentation at AGU 2018

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

During the second week of December 2018, I made an oral presentation at the in Washington D.C. (USA), the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences worldwide.

The work was entitled (Final paper number ). It evaluates the improvements of the latest IMERG version 05 Final Run (IMERGv05-F) over its predecessor TMPA 3B42v7, over the diverse climatic gradients and complex topography of Chile, from January 2015 to December 2016.

In addition, I participated as co-author in the work (Final paper number ), which summarises the MSc thesis carried out by Hamish Hann ( ) during his visiting period at the University of La Frontera (first semester 2017).

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Oral presentation at SPIE 2018

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

From 24 to 27th of September 2018 I participated at the SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing symposium, which took place in Honolulu (Hawaii, USA). In that conference I made an oral presentation entitled , which was finally published in the proceedings of the international Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers ( ):

Zambrano-Bigiarini, M. (2018) “Temporal and spatial evaluation of long-term satellite-based precipitation products across the complex topographical and climatic gradients of Chile”, Proc. SPIE 10782, Remote Sensing and Modeling of the Atmosphere, Oceans, and Interactions VII, 1078202 (23 October 2018); doi: 10.1117/12.2513645;

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Visiting period at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Sat, 22 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In August 2018 I got an invitation from the co-chair of the to conduct a two-week (18-Sep to 01-Oct 2018) visiting period at the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( ). This internship was carried out (and funded) by Ziad S. Haddad (Assistant Section Manager, Radar JPL Science and Engineering Section), to discuss a comprehensive evaluation of current rainfall products of global scale, to allow scientists and users of the international community to make objective evaluations and make informed decisions about the use of these products.

During this period, ziad and I attended a meeting at the at the , in order to discuss the methodology and time period to be used for the comprehensive evaluation of current rainfall products of global scale. In this opportunity I met Soroosh Sorooshian, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou and most of their team at UCL. This was an excellent opportunity to know all the people behind the excellent work producing the PERSIANN family of satellite precipititation estimates.

This internship ended with the publication of an Scopus in the proceedings of the International Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers ( ).

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Article on satellite-based rainfall estimates over Latin America accepted for publication in Atmospheric Research

Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The article was accepted for publication in the journal.

This work exhaustively evaluate six satellite rainfall estimates (TRMM 3B42v7, TRMM 3B42RT, CHIRPSv2, CMORPHv1, PERSIANN-CDR, and MSWEPv2) over three basins in Latin-America (Imperial in Chile, Paraiba do Sul in Brazil, and Magdalena in Colombia). Several continuous and categorical indices of performance are used at daily, monthly and seasonal time scales. Our analysis revealed which products are in beter agreement with ground-based observations of precipitation and if the upscaling procedure, used in CHIRPSv2 and MSWEPv2, affects the evaluation of the SREs performance at different time scales.

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Oral presentation at EGU 2018

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

During the second week of April 2018, I made an oral presentation at the in Vienna (Austria), the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences in Europe.

The work was entitled ( ). It analises the suitability of the combined use of state-of-the-art satellite-based precipitation (CHIRPS) and potential evapotranspiration (MOD16A2) estimates to characterise the spatial distribution of the so called “Chilean megadrought”, which has affected the central-southern territory of Chile (29ºS-46ºS) during the last decade.

In addition, I participated as co-author in the following three works presented at the same conference:

. [EGU2018-12036].
. [EGU2018-2374].
. [EGU2018-18702].

The first two works are product of the interdisciplinary collaboration at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research ( ), while the last work summarise the MSc thesis carried out by Hamish Hann ( ) during his visiting period at Temuco (first semester 2017).

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Oral presentation at AGU 2017

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During the second week of December 2017, I made an oral presentation at the in New orleans (USA), the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences worldwide.

The work was entitled (Final paper number ). It uses two drought indices to analyze the impacts of precipitation and temperature on the frequency, severity and duration of Chilean droughts (25°S-56°S) during the XXI century, using multi-model climate projections consistent with the high-end RCP 8.5 scenario.

In addition, I participated as co-author in the work ) (Final paper number ), which evaluate several sate-of-the-art satellite-based rainfall estimates (TMPA 3B42v7, TMPA 3B42RT, CHIRPSv2, CMORPH, PERSIANN-CDR and MSWEPv1.2) over different basins in Latin-America (Imperial Basin in Chile, Paraiba do Sul in Brazil and Magdalena in Colombia) to determine the best performing satellite product.

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Short course on use of R for analysing satelite-based rainfall estimates (SREs) in Germany

Fri, 05 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During the first week of May, I gave a short course to postgraduate students of the of TH Köln ( ).

This course had two parts, the first one was given by the doctoral student Oscar Baez, who was at UFRO last April. The objective of this first part (April 23th to 27th) was to provide students with basic concepts about , free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, (installation, types of variables, exploratory data analysis, and spatial data management). The second part (May 3rd and 4th) was to introduce participants to the management of time series in R, and the use of it for the analysis of spatio-temporal data, in particular for reading and analysing satelite-based rainfall estimates (SREs), expanding the work “ ” presented at the EGUA 2017 during the last week of April ( ), which was an oral .

This short course is product of the international collaboration with Lars Ribbe and Alexandra Nauditt from the of TH Köln ( ).

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Participación en la Conferencia EGU 2017

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During the last week of April, I presented two works on the , the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences in Europe.

The first work was ( ), which was an oral about the use of R, the free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, for analysing different spatio-temporal datasets of precipitation at the Chilean spatail scale.

The second work was the oral presentation ( ), which summarises the main findings about the performance of seven different satellite-based precipitation products over the Chilean territory.

Both works are the product of the international collaboration with researchers from Germany, Costa Rica and Chile on the use of different satellite-based precipitation products as a complement to current ground-based rainfall measurement networks.

Spanish version:

Durante la semana del 24 al 28 de Abril, presenté dos trabajos en la conferencia , el evento científico más importante de Ciencias de la Tierra en Europa.

El primer trabajo fue ( ), una sobre el uso de R, el ambiente estadístico libre, para el análisis de distintos conjuntos de datos espacio-temporales de precipitaciòn a escala nacional (Chile).

El segundo trabajo fue la presentación oral ( ), la cual resume los principales resultados de una comparación exhaustiva de siete productos satelitales de precipitación sobre el territorio de Chile.

Ambos trabajos son producto de la colaboración internacional con investigadores de Alemania, Costa Rica y Chile, sobre el uso de distintos productos satelitales de precipitación como complemento a las actuales redes de medición pluviométrica.

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Article on satellite-based rainfall estimates over Chile accepted for publication in HESS

Mon, 30 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The article was accepted yesterday (January 30th, 2017) for publication in the journal (HESS).

This work exhaustively evaluate -for the first time- the suitability of seven state-of-the-art satellite-based rainfall estimates (SRE) over the complex topography and diverse climatic gradients of Chile. Several indices of performance are used for different time scales and elevation zones. Our analysis revealed which products are in best with ground based observations of precipitation and which indices of performance suitable to capture mismatches in shape, magnitude, variability and intensity of precipitation.

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PhD summer school Remote Sensing applications for Water Accounting

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Water accounting is a fundamental basis to understand water availability and demands and the related benefits and efficiencies are related to water uses. While the fundamental data needed for establishing water accounts is often missing, Remote Sensing can contribute to fill the data gaps. With this course PhD students and staff at ITT will become familiar with the application of Remote Sensing to derive information on precipitation, evapotranspiration and land cover - three essential information elements for water accounts. Dr. Raul Vicens from Universidade Federal Fluminense de Brasil will introduce the basic techinques of Remote Sensing using the software SPRING and introduce to derive land cover information from products such as Landsat. Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini from , Chile, will focus on the use of the software to derive Precipitation estimates from products such as TRMM. Finally Dr Islam Sabry from the National Water Research Center, Egypt will introduce the use of satellite based estimates for evapotranspiration data.

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