The High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN), a University of California San Diego partnership project led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, supports Internet-data applications in the research, education, and public safety realms.


HPWREN functions as a collaborative, Internet-connected cyberinfrastructure. The project supports a high-bandwidth wireless backbone and access data network in San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial counties in areas that are typically not well-served by other technologies to reach the Internet. This includes backbone locations, typically sited on mountain tops, to connect often hard-to-reach areas in the remote Southern California back country.

Recent Image

Accessing space from above and below: rocket launch as seen from the Palomar Observatory


The Lunar Analemma


12 February 2025

Robert Quimby, a professor of Astronomy at San Diego State University has used images from the east-facing HPWREN camera at the Mount Laguna Observatory to show how the Moon's position in the sky changes as it moves through its orbit. A plot showing the apparent position of the Moon every 24 hours and 50 minutes for 1 month is called the Lunar Analemma.

HPWREN Time Lapse or

Live Stream Videos

Fires, weather conditions, flooding, and other public safety conditions are scenarios where real-time sensor data distributions can become important aspects for situational awareness. HPWREN can now provide live feeds from most of its cameras, in addition to the post-processed videos shown at:

https://www.youtube.com/user/hpwren/videos



Recent video

20250212 Border 2 fire with revised ignition time

Based on images via one of the more light and near-IR sensitive monochrome HPWREN fixed field of view cameras, it was possible to revise the ignition time of the recent Border 2 fire to more than 12 hours prior to the previously recorded ignition point at about 13:23 on 23 January 2025. Instead, the fire started the night before at, or prior to, 00:45. This time-lapse video shows the area from midnight to 15:00. To create better visibility of the area, the basic video is overlaid with a semi-transparent baseline image that was taken from shortly after the daytime flareup, and adds a small visible plume. This helps with comparing the locations of the times when the fire was visible, to determine that they were indeed the same. It also provides for a better view of where things are, as, without the overlay, the photos look more or less black at the ignition location.