Tsunamis are one of the most powerful and destructive natural forces. Triggered by earthquakes, tsunami waves typically reach shores anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes after a quake occurs. Current tsunami early warning systems in the Cascadia subduction zone struggle to respond within the first...
The NASA Disasters Program sponsors application science to support disaster risk reduction, response, and recovery through a series of grants and partnerships funded by the NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) program. The current portfolio of projects from the 2019 ROSES A.37 solicitation covers a broad swath of hazard and disaster research, from tsunami and landslide forecasting to volcanic ash and wildfire smoke plume tracking. It represents the cutting edge of applied disasters research. The program’s research efforts aim to assemble scientifically-defensible studies on disaster risk management, demonstrate the applications of NASA Earth-observing data for studying disasters, and mature the technologies and techniques developed from these projects to operational use.
Projects
Principal Investigator
Stephanie Willsey
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Coronado Disasters (2024 Spring)
Team: Andrea Slotke (Project Lead), Mikki Arimitsu, Alexander Behzadi, Madeline Drelichman
Summary: The Coronado National Memorial (CORO), located in Hereford, Arizona, is situated along the United States' southern border, featuring recently established but still incomplete border barrier roads. This landscape is...
Principal Investigator
Diego Melgar
Principal Investigator
Olivia Landry
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Youngstown & Warren Disasters (Fall 2022)
Team: Lauren Mahoney (Project Lead), David Henriques, Nada Haddad, Thomas Ferrell
Summary: Both pluvial and fluvial flooding events pose direct challenges to urban infrastructure and communities across the United States. Heavy rainfall events oversaturate the ground, overflow waterbodies, and...
Principal Investigator
Katie Caruso
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Kentucky Disasters (2024 Spring)
Team: Daniel Feinberg (Project Lead), Claire Beezley, Jason Reynolds, Jaydi Swanson
Summary: Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in Kentucky, with major flood events in 2022 and 2023 highlighting the need for flood risk assessment. In partnership with...
Principal Investigator
Charles Huyck
Cities are complex systems with interconnected “lifeline networks” enabled by critical infrastructure, which can be severely damaged or destroyed in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Following Hurricanes Maria and Katrina and the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, for example, damage to critical systems resulted in...
Principal Investigator
Dr. Hua Zhang
Team:
• Jim Lee (Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi), co-I
• Yuxia Huang (Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi), co-I
• Lapone Techapinyawat (Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi), graduate student
• Wen Zhong (Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi), graduate student
•...
Principal Investigator
Olivia Landry
Capacity Building Type
DEVELOP
Richmond Disasters (Summer 2023)
Team: Kaylee Tanner (Project Lead), Brodie Thiele, Trinity Johnson, Maggie Lincoln
Summary: Pluvial flooding is the most frequent and widespread type of flooding in urban areas. It occurs when intense precipitation events overwhelm the capacity of soils and drainage systems. The...