About this Service

The World Weather for Water Data Service (W3S) is a Data as a Service (DaaS) platform that enables users to download various climate data products, such as precipitation, maximum temperature, and minimum temperature, from popular sources. Users can define their region of interest within any watershed globally. The weather data is available in multiple formats compatible with hydrologic models like SWAT, as well as in generic CSV format for other models. Essentially, W3S serves as a global weather data hub, designed to help users quickly develop both conceptual and data-driven rainfall-runoff and hydro-ecological models.

Data Sources

Historical Data:
Precipitation Data: Daily timestep; 1999 onwards. Original data source: IMERG: Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM, (https://gpm.nasa.gov/data/imerg). Final Run product, V06/V07.

Temperature Data: Daily timestep: 1999 onwards. Original data source: Climate Prediction Center of Physical Sciences Laboratory, (https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.cpc.globaltemp.html)

CHIRPS & CHIRTS Data: Daily timestep: 1983 to 2016 (Temperature) and 1981 onwards (Precipitation). Original data source: Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations, (https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ds832)
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00643-7)

References

We request the users of this data platform to provide appropriate references of following articles pertaining to the data platform and original data sources

W3S platform: Ghimire, U., Akhtar, T., Shrestha, N.K. et al. A Long-term Global Comparison of IMERG and CFSR with Surface Precipitation Stations. Water Resour Manage 36, 5695–5709 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-022-03328-5

IMERG: Huffman, G.J., Bolvin, D.T., Braithwaite, D., Hsu, K., Joyce, R., Xie, P. and Yoo, S.H., 2015. NASA global precipitation measurement (GPM) integrated multi-satellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG). Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) Version, 4(26). https://gpm.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/IMERG_ATBD_V06.3.pdf

CPC: CPC Global Unified Temperature data provided by the NOAA PSL, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their website at https://psl.noaa.gov

CHIRPS: Funk, C.C., Peterson, P.J., Landsfeld, M.F., Pedreros, D.H., Verdin, J.P., Rowland, J.D., Romero, B.E., Husak, G.J., Michaelsen, J.C., and Verdin, A.P., 2014, A quasi-global precipitation time series for drought monitoring: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 832, 4 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ds832

CHIRTS: Verdin, A., Funk, C., Peterson, P. et al. Development and validation of the CHIRTS-daily quasi-global high-resolution daily temperature data set. Sci Data 7, 303 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00643-7

Code

The frontend of the application is developed using R Shiny. The backend incorporates the Timeloop python package to schedule and manage jobs. Build automation is streamlined through a straightforward pipeline: a Forgejo action handles image builds, followed by a Watchtower component that monitors the image registry. Comprehensive backend testing is conducted with Pytest, covering both integration and unit tests to ensure functionality.

Contributors and Collaborators

Faculty and Staff

• Prasad Daggupati , University of Guelph
  • Overall management and direction of the project and oversees the development and implementation of the platform
• Asim Biswas , University of Guelph
  • Contributes invaluable ideas, support, and direction
• Raghavan Srinivasan , Texas A&M University
  • Playing a key role in the global reach and innovation of our climate data portal
• Matthew Kent, Joel Best, Bogdan Bunescu , University of Guelph
  • Overall management and maintenance of the servers, coding new features, and ensuring the safety and security of our climate data portal

Developers

• Taimoor Akhtar , University of Guelph
  • Lead developer: Developed the core functionalities of the application.
• Steven Mugisha Mizero , University of Guelph
  • Lead developer
  • Active maintainer
  • Developed data processing modules
• Leo Bantolino , University of Guelph
  • Lead developer
  • Developed data automation modules
  • Managed networking
  • Built and managed CI pipelines
  • Implemented test suite
• Mugesh Raj Krishnamoorthy , SRM College, India
  • Developer & Data analysist
  • Developed MSWEP processing modules
  • Implemented MSWEP UI features

Data Analysis

• Uttam Ghimire , University of Guelph, ON and Stockholm Environment Institute Asia Center, Bangkok, Thailand
  • Data analysist: Analyzed and processed the climate data.
• Narayan K. Shrestha , University of Guelph
  • Data analysist: Analyzed and processed the climate data.
• Pranesh Kumar Paul , University of Guelph
  • Strategic consultant: Supported the project by providing critical insights and support

Collaborators

• Greenland International Consulting Ltd
• Texas A&M University

Contact

If you have any questions, suggestions, or are interested in contributing to the improvement of the platform, please feel free to reach out to Prasad Daggupati at pdaggupa@uoguelph.ca. Your feedback and support are greatly appreciated, and we look forward to collaborating with you to enhance the platform’s capabilities. Thank you for your interest and involvement!

Global Reach (Since 2023)