Mawün: Historical gridded precipitation for Chile

Sep 2, 2020 · 3 min read
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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

Mawün, 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 Kimün‑Ko Water Resources Observatory with support from the Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR)2, Mawün provides a centralized environment where researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers can interactively examine precipitation patterns across Chile’s diverse climatic regions.

Mawün web platform

Main screen of Mawün 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 Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR)2 from the national hydrometeorological monitoring networks operated by the Dirección General de Aguas (DGA) and the Dirección Meteorológica de Chile (DMC). 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

Web Platforms Kimün-Ko R Precipitation
Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini
Authors
Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini (he/him)
Associate Professor

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of La Frontera. I hold a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Trento (Italy) and completed postdoctoral training at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. I have more than 20 years of experience in water resources research and have previously served as an Associate Researcher at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2 and as a member of the Earth Sciences Assessment Group of the Chilean National Research and Development Agency (ANID).

My research lies at the interface of hydrology, data science, and environmental sciences, with a particular focus on the use of gridded datasets and open-source tools to investigate droughts, extreme events, and water-related impacts of global change.

I work across spatial and temporal scales to improve the understanding of catchment-scale hydrological processes and to translate this knowledge into operational modelling, forecasting, and early-warning systems that support robust environmental decision-making.

Please reach out to collaborate 😃