And Downburst is one of the most sudden and violent weather phenomena that can be seen and are associated with strong currents descendants of storms that, when colliding against the ground, extend horizontally.
Un downburst (In Spain it is known as burst or crustdepending on the area) It is a very intense descending air that falls from convective or storm clouds. These strong descending currents occur with very specific conditions.
There are several types of comfort. On the one hand, The warm, when there is a relatively dry layer of air close to the ground and precipitation evaporates before reaching the surface. On the other, Wet bursts, which are associated with abrupt precipitation. In both cases it is a consequence of the weakening of the ascending current that feeds the storm.
What does Chef or Downburst mean?
The system ‘Downburst MXO ‘is the first application that monitors severe atmospheric events, such as tornadoes associated with storms or the so -called’ bursts’, in the Valencian Community. This technology is already operational and uses real -time data of 700 stations related to the Valencian Association of Meteorology.
The CSIC teams, the University of Valencia and the Generalitat Valencian downbursts, In the Valencian Community.
The application, called ‘Dorkburst is’allows the detection of these phenomena thanks to the network of more than 700 weather stations with real -time data of the Valencian Association of Meteorology (AVAMET).
The extreme winds associated with storms represent a severe weather phenomenon, since they can reach intensities similar to those of a tornado And, therefore, they suppose a risk due to the direct impact on communities and infrastructure.
In the current climate change scenario, the project DOWNBURST Investigate the potential effects of global warming on the risk of extreme winds associated with storms in the Valencian Mediterranean region, with an approach to the improvement of its detection, attribution and prediction.
According to César AzorínCSIC scientist who leads the project, “the preliminary results suggest that the global warming It could be increasing the frequency and severity of bursts due to changes in thermodynamics. The phenomenon of downbursts It is very difficult prediction and puts air safety at risk or the propagation of forest fires, among others ».
“Therefore, this first real time monitoring service can be very useful to improve the surveillance tasks of the phenomenon and its immediate impacts,” says the researcher.
A free and free practical tool
This web application can be accessed free of charge through the pages of AVAMET, CLIMATOC-LAB AND THE DOWNBURST PROJECT.
The system is based on a Algorithm that constantly reads the tenminutals of all Avamet stationsand automatically identifies if a burst phenomenon is happening based on sudden changes such as strong winds accompanied by changes in temperature, humidity, precipitation or atmospheric pressure. Where the established criteria are met, the web application Downburst The Point out the location with a representative symbol of the burst.
The system notifies the Station owner to check the veracity of the event and can provide other data such as damage generated in the area (falling trees, electric towers, walls, etc.), photographs and videos. Each of the registered events are in turn verified by the project research team DOWNBURST, and become part of a burst database.
The application Downburst MXO appeared at an event held at the Casa de la Ciència del CSIC in Valencia organized by the CIDE CIDE, the PTI+ Climate and Avamet. There was the importance of the weather observation provided by citizen science, with Avamelet as an example of Collaboration with CSIC for the generation of knowledge and services.
“The Availability of a dense network such as Avamet It is essential for the observation of a phenomenon that sometimes occurs in very local scales, affecting areas of less than 4 kilometers, ”says Azorín.
He system is already operational and plans to be updated periodically With improvements in its operation and information, such as the classification of counting events by typology (dry, wet, warm, etc.) or automation on demand for alerts for public and private entities interested in their use for different purposes.