G-WADI Precipitation Data Downloads Double for Fifth Straight Year, Find Broad Use in Southwestern Africa

Users of G-WADI linked PERSIANN precipitation data and information downloaded almost 19 terabytes of data in 2018. This continued a five-year trend of annual doubling of data downloaded that began in 2013.

The data products and systems were designed by, and are served by, the University of California, Irvine's Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing. The majority of the data downloaded was from the real-time precipitation product PERSIANN-CCS. The “climate data record" product, PERSIANN-CDR and the original PERSIANN product constituted most of the rest of the data downloads. In addition, PERSIANN-CDR data is being downloaded from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. 

The majority of data for scientific, engineering, water management and planning studies are served from the CHRS Data Portal—an easily accessible public repository of PERSIANN data. However, user-friendly interfaces for PERSIANN-CCS (“iRain”) and PERSIANN-CDR (“Rainsphere”) are the preferred choice for those who, for example, need real-time rainfall information or are educators showing their students long-term rainfall trends in their region.

Both the iRain and Rainsphere websites emphasize presenting data in an interesting and easily digestible form, with the use of colorful representations of mosaic data, simple-to-understand tools, measurements and comparisons done automatically, and “how-to” videos.

An example of real-time use of iRain appears daily on the cover of the Namibia Hydrological Services’ Daily Flood Bulletin, which is sent to more than 600 recipients in Namibia, neighboring countries and the international community. The iRain system helps the NHS to monitor their domestic and international basins, while providing valuable information to the tourism, wildlife conservation and agricultural communities. Email delivery of the bulletin may be requested from Namibia Hydrological Services.