San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation and Pontifical Catholic University launch platform

• GEOOs possesses the necessary tools to display georeferenced information, allowing the visualization and quick comparison of different climatic, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem variables.

Valparaíso December 16, 2020.- The San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation and Universidad Católica de Valparaiso have launched the Observational GeoPortal Geoos, a free platform that provides georeferenced information in real time using data from monitoring stations and satellites. The tool is aimed at students, scientists, scholars and other institutions alike.

"Anyone who needs to consult georeferenced information can easily access this platform. You will be able to find out online what is happening off the coast of Chile or in Antarctica. The platform can be used to display data and information from a diversity of areas. It is a great tool, designed to support decision-making in environmental matters,” said Samuel Hormazábal, scientific director of the San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation and director of the School of Marine Sciences of the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso.

The platform dates back to 2014 when it was created as a data support tool, called "Caletas", designed to provide satellite information to artisanal fishermen, via their mobile phones, on navigation or weather conditions.

Today, the new platform renamed Geoos has extended its scope to encompass other geographical areas and uses.

“This platform breaks with certain limitations in the past in access to information because it is free and easy to use. The information available can be used for different decision-making processes depending on the user's needs. It is technology put at the service of society and science,” said Paolo Pallotti, President of the San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation.

With Geoos it is possible to cross and visualize data and variables from georeferenced monitoring systems of the ocean, the atmosphere, ecosystems, vegetation, or any type of georeferenced information. Currently, the information available is based on numerical models from satellites and ground monitoring stations. It covers the Pacific region off the coasts of Chile, Peru and Ecuador, as well as the Caribbean and part of the Atlantic and Antarctica. GEOOs has the necessary tools to easily display information visually and make quick comparisons of variables, according to their origin, use and purpose. It takes advantage of different formats and resolutions, which are skillfully standardized for use.

San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation

The San Ignacio del Huinay Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 2001 by its founding partners Enel Generación Chile (then Endesa Chile) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. The foundation is located in 34,000 hectares of land in the Comau Fjord area, in the Los Lagos Region. The foundation carries out scientific research through a program that observes and seeks to understand the structures and dynamics of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Chilean Patagonia and publishes and makes its findings freely available to society at large. In the area of education, the foundation annually organizes the Huinay Summer School, a theoretical and practically based program that focuses on scientific and technological training and the spreading of scientific knowledge.