Earth Institute’s Muñoz, DMC Advance #NextGen Deployment

At the beginning of September, Ángel Muñoz, Associate Research Scientist from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, visited Chile to meet with the National Meteorological Service (DMC as per its initials in Spanish) to advance on the implementation of the Next Generation of Seasonal Climate Forecasts (NextGen).

The Earth Institute is working with Columbia Global Centers Santiago and local partners such as the DMC, Universidad de Chile, and a network of local experts, to help co-design, co-develop and implement the project in Chile. The effort is being financed by the President’s Global Innovation Fund (PGIF), a program that supports faculty in developing projects and research collaborations within and across the University’s nine Columbia Global Centers in order to increase global opportunities for research and teaching.

NextGen, whose Principal Investigator is Muñoz, is a new multi-model, statistically calibrated weather forecast system which takes advantage of the expertise of forecasters and local scientists at the country’s meteorological service and universities. It is a modern forecast methodology that validates global models based on local experiences and climate data in order to provide more robust and fine-tuned forecasts for specific areas of interest. The predictions are to be used by decision makers in sectors such as agriculture and food security, as well as energy, water management, disaster prevention and health.

It forms part of Columbia University’s project to apply cutting-edge climate research to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG#2): “End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition and Promote Sustainable Agriculture”.

NextGen has been successfully implemented in Guatemala and Colombia via the Columbia World Project “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow”, or ACToday.

During his time in Santiago, Muñoz also met with DMC representatives and the Global Center Santiago team to plan out the details of the seminar “#NextGen: La Nueva Generación de Pronósticos Climáticos para Chile.” During this event, to be held in the context of COP25 and sponsored by COP25, DMC, CIAT/CGIAR, WFP, CR2 and the Santiago Global Center,  the DMC will showcase its work to implement NextGen.

At the event, the DMC will also have discussions with national and international experts, including authorities from Guatemala and Colombia, about how climate services produced with this new system are positively impacting decision-making processes to achieve SDG#2.

The event will be held Wednesday, December 4, from 9am until 12:45pm, at the CEA-PUCV Auditorium (Antonio Bellet 314, Providencia, Santiago, Chile).