NASA Earth Science Disasters Program Response Activities During Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017 Jordan Bell Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama NASA Earth Science Disasters Response Program, Marshall Space Flight Center 1 Major Weather Events and Impacts of 2017 Coauthors and Contributors David Green, Program Manager NASAHeadquarters and Applied Sciences Disasters Program Jessica Seepersad Carver Struve Victoria Thompson Dalia Kirschbaum, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Miguel Román, Kelvin Brentzel Michael Goodman NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Jordan Bell, University of Alabama Huntsville / MSFC Lori Schultz, NASASERVIR Team Margaret Glasscoe, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Sang-Ho Yun, Susan Owen, Rashied California Institute of Technology Amini, Yunling Lou William Stefanov NASA Johnson Space Center John Murray NASA Langley Research Center Franz Meyer, University of Alaska Fairbanks / Alaska Satellite Facility Kirk Hogenson, Rudiger Gens Other partners: USGS/Hazards Data Distribution System, Int’l Charter on Space and Major Disasters, end user collaborators within DHS/FEMA, U.S. National Guard, University of Maryland, Global Flood Partnership, others. Some examples in this presentation contain modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA and analyzed by staff at NASA2- JPL/Caltech/ARIA, NASA Marshall, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, along with data provided by USGS/HDDS and Int’l Charter Disaster Response Team Process Event • Following a disaster event, NASA personnel at HQ evaluate to Rapid Assessment: determine an appropriate degree of Understand event, requests from users… response from NASA Centers and partners. Disaster Response Plan Activates! (Selection of Lead Coordinator) (end users) • When activated, NASA Centers contribute an event coordinator to help bring together efforts Center / Headquarters Coordinators Personnel working within their Centers or affiliated throughout the agency and academic projects to bring event-specific information to users or industry partners. Airborne Ames Goddard HQ • Response activities focus on JPL Johnson Langley Marshall providing information and products requested by partners, helping to integrate information into their Center / PI-Led Projects and Expertise NASAMission Data, Derived Products decision-making process. Applied Science, Research and Analysis, Airborne 2017 Hurricane Response Activities NASA’s Earth Science Disaster Response Team provided numerous products and assistance during Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria Efforts focused on partnerships with USGS/HDDS, Charter activities, and other data sources to address remote sensing needs of state, federal, and international partners. Examples include: • Using NASA data to support weather analysis and forecasting • Synthetic aperture radar, including airborne UAVSAR, and optical remote sensing to help map flooding in affected states, Puerto Rico, and Caribbean islands. • Longer-term remote sensing efforts to map recovery, with specific focus on loss and recovery of light following Hurricane Maria Monitoring Hurricanes with GPM GPM and Constellation Imagers Map Cyclone Positions and Help Measure Rainfall • The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) and other constellation sensors provide passive microwave imaging of tropical cyclones. • NASA partnerships help to distribute this imagery to colleagues at Harvey NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center and Naval Research Lab, where imagery is used to help identify center of location and internal Irma structure. GPM also reveals three-dimensional structure and IMERG integrates rainfall over time to assess scope and impact of inland flooding, particularly where radar is not available. 5 Soil Moisture NASA mission data and models capture impacts of rainfall on soil moisture and greater likelihood of flooding Data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission (top) capture significant increases in soil moisture across southeastern Texas following Harvey, with similar observations available for other JPL/CalTechand NASA Earth Observatory tropical cyclones. Combined with other atmospheric forcing and rainfall data sets, the NASA Land Information System (LIS) to create higher spatial resolution maps of soil moisture prior to and during Hurricane Harvey. Soil moisture increases are used by partners to assess flood-prone areas and other agricultural applications. 6 NASA Marshall / Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center Synthetic Aperture Radar Mapping 30 August 2017 Texas MSFC/ASF Flood Proxy Map (Hurricane Harvey) NASA scientists apply SAR remote sensing techniques to map flood extents to inform Flooding partner damage analysis Flooding Teams across NASA including the JPL Advanced Puerto Rico Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team, NASA Damage Proxy Map Marshall in partnership with the Alaska Satellite (Hurricane Maria) Facility, NASA Goddard, and others provided SAR JPL/ARIA analysis for flood extent and damage mapping shared with partners including USGS, the Charter, JPL/ARIA FEMA, National Guard, and others. Specific to Harvey, NASA provided flights of UAVSAR led by JPL that assisted the State of Texas with rapid mapping of flood evolution in the Houston metro area. UAVSAR/JPL Flights in Houston 7 Multiple SAR scenes via Charter/USGS/HDDS in partner analysis Optical Remote Sensing and Mapping NASA NRT Global Flood Mapping 13 September 2017 NASA team members leverage routine mapping from MODIS for mapping flood extent, and remote sensing expertise to provide additional mapping through HDDS SPOT 6/Worldview 2 Imagery 30/31 August 2017 and other providers. • Routine remote sensing of flood extent via MODIS provided by team Worldview 2 30 August 2017 members at NASA Goddard • Other optical data including SPOT, DigitalGlobe Worldview, and others provided by HDDS used to derive various indices and map floods to build upon SAR and other analysis for end users partners MSFC/UAH and SERVIR collaboration Monitoring Nighttime Lights NASA GSFC and Earth Observatory NASA/NOAA Suomi-NPP VIIRS data and nighttime light imaging documents extensive loss of light across Puerto Rico, providing situational awareness and opportunity to monitor recovery. NASA’s Black Marble (below) and Black Marble HD (above) combine VIIRS data and analysis over time to capture departures from normal and current light conditions in the context of real-time cloud cover. Delivery of products to partners, along with guidance on interpretation, assists with situational awareness and other response decision-making. 9 GSFC/MSFC Collaboration with U.S. National Guard Bureau Response Timeline: Harvey 10