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


Improvements to HPWREN Data Management and User Interface via AWS


1 July 2025

Read about improvements to HPWREN's data management and user interface, as well as the story of our AWS migration.


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.