May, 2023.- With the aim of associating efforts to link up in the area of research and development, the Dirección Meteorológica de Chile and the Innovation Directorate of the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data signed a collaboration agreement that will allow the linking of scientific knowledge of data with the invaluable climatological and atmospheric information of the Meteorological Directorate.

The Chilean Meteorological Directorate, under the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil, is the body responsible for meteorological work in the country, whose purpose is to satisfy the information and meteorological forecasting needs of all national activities.

The entity has been collecting information uninterruptedly since 1914, with data such as hourly/daily observation of the respective meteorological variables (atmospheric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and force, among others), and has a national meteorological archive, which dates back to 1868 and contains the original data records of each station in the country, safeguarded in accordance with international ISO quality standards, under adequate classification and storage conditions.

“In the first instance, we are going to review and carry out a diagnosis of this data, its formats, supports and forms of processing, looking for ways to work with them using the data science tools that we have at the institute, and also projects that we can carry out jointly that generate benefits and knowledge”, explains Jazmine Maldonado, director of IMFD Innovation.

The director of the DMC, Reinaldo Gutiérrez, said that this agreement will allow the search for opportunities to improve internal processes, obtain new products and use the large amount of data available to the institution.

“It will allow us to explore other sources of information that are linked to meteorology, such as the reports that people make on social networks regarding the impacts generated by meteorological phenomena,” said Reinaldo Gutiérrez.

Meanwhile, the person in charge of the Meteorological Studies Office, Ricardo Abarca, stressed that this agreement arose after the concern of DMC professionals, who observed a kind of deluge of data, from the area of atmospheric sciences and/or linked to them.

“It is not always possible to fully analyze this valuable information that is available. In this way, this opportunity was presented to IMFD, who we know have both theoretical and practical knowledge of what is known as data science”, highlighted the meteorologist.

With the signing of this agreement, the collaborative work that will seek, with state-of-the-art tools, to use one of the oldest systematized data lines available in the country begins.