CubeSats, Mesonets, and Drones, Oh My!

Emerging Earth Science Technologies

in Disaster Management
John D. Evans
Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST)
Greenbelt, Maryland
 Overview
Review emerging earth science technologies
Small Satellites; CubeSats
Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones)
Crowdsourcing; Location-Based Services
Internet of Things (incl. Interoperable Mesonets)
Cloud Computing; Big Data Analytics
Other potential game-changers

Sketch their roles in Disaster Risk Management

using GEOSS Architecture for Disasters / GA.4.D
Viewpoints; Business Processes
Hazard types; Lifecycle phases
Ingredients of streamlined integration
 Small Satellites
Examples
Surrey/DMCii Disaster Monitoring
Constellation
China Environment and Disaster
Reduction Huan Jing Satellite
Constellation (HJ-1A,B,C) (detail)
Potential: dramatic increases
in spatial, temporal resolution
32 polar-orbiting satellites
HJ-1C
=> hour revisits (link)

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 CubeSats
Examples
Planet Labs Dove constellation
Surrey STRaND-1 CubeSat
Interorbital Systems: $8,000 launch kits
Planet Labs

Interorbital Planet Labs\

Systems Dove CubeSats
Test Launch
launched from ISS Planet Labs
STRaND-1 Feb. 2014
Mar. 2014 Doveconstellation (subset)

http://www.diyspaceexploration.com

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 Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones)

NASAs Ikhana UAV

monitoring wildfires

Price: $299.99 & FREE Shipping

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 Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones)

Flood mapping in Boulder,

Colorado (Sept. 2013)

Eco-drone applications (per UNEP Global Alert Service, May 2013)

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 Crowdsourcing via mobile devices

Examples:
FEMA Disaster
Reporter app: share
GPS photo reports
SMS in Port-au-Prince
earthquake

Quake-Catcher network
Boston Street Bump
app

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 Internet of Things
Sensor-based detection of earthquakes, forest fires, oil spills,
severe weather, volcanic gas plumes, drought
cf. Sensors: "Sensors for Disaster and Emergency Management Decision Making
cf. Sensors: An Open Distributed Architecture for Sensor Networks for Risk
Management
Other examples:
Smart Grid for household electricity
conservation
Gunfire locator using acoustic sensors
(Washington, DC)
Air pollution sensors (Salamanca, Spain)
(from Wired UK 07/2013)

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 Interoperable mesonets
National Mesonet / MesoUS
27,000+ weather stations in 137+ networks
Near-real-time feed to U.S. National Weather Service
Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS)

Mobile mesonet (MoPED)

SODAR

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 Location-based services
e.g., Wireless Emergency Alerts

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 Cloud Computing
Detect event => scale up computing & storage capability
in minutes
Scale back down after crisis
Examples:
Namibia Flood Dashboard and Image processing service
hosted on Matsu cloud

Amazon EC2 server racks by region

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 Big Data analytics
Detecting patterns & correlations
e.g., analyzing Tweets to detect seismic events
cf. T. Sakaki et al., in April 2013 IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data
Engineering, doi:10.1109/TKDE.2012.29
Landslide susceptibility assessment
Monte-Carlo ensemble simulations Risk envelopes
e.g., SLOSH (Sea, Lake, & Overland Surges from Hurricanes) model from the
U.S. National Hurricane Center

map-D

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 Other potentially game-changing technologies
Model Webs / Modeling as a Service
Semantic Services
Collaboration services
Satellite Direct Broadcast / Direct Readout
New sensor types
Others?

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 How to integrate new technologies well?

Need to understand / develop / adapt technologies with greatest

likely impacts on disaster management
Not limit their use to current practices
(Or reject them because they dont fit current practices)
Not embrace new toys mindlessly
Need to envision what new analytical or operational capabilities
these technologies may enable, and where they will matter
Sometimes, new technologies may imply new goals (not just new methods)
Need to rely on widely-adopted, consensus-based standards
Information semantics
Data formats
Service definitions
Software interfaces

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 CEOS / GEOSS Architecture for the use of Remote Sensing
Products in Disaster Management and Risk Assessment (GA.4.D)

Released Dec. 2013

Review by CEOS, UN-SPIDER, others

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 Scope, purpose, structure
Scope & purpose based on
GEO Task DI-01 GEOSS Strategic Targets
Consistent with GEOSS principles
Enterprise Viewpoint

System of Systems Data Sharing Principles

Interoperability Arrangements
Lifecycle phases
Mitigation Warning
Response Recovery
Hazard types
Flooding Earthquakes Volcanoes
Drought Windstorms Landslides

Wildfires Tsunamis

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 Activities (business processes)
3. Data
acquisition 4. Modeling
Remote In situ Forecast
Archive
Nowcast
Task sensors Acquire data Hindcast
Enterprise Viewpoint

1. Event detection 2. Situational

Awareness 5. Analysis
Routine / Global
Monitoring Gather / Assimilate Decision Analysis: Preprocess
Information Act / Plan
User-generated
postings Analyze

Routine / Global model Interpret

outputs 6. Dissemination
7. User Access Visualize

Initiators Publish product

Actuators Alerts / Notices

Processors Ongoing updates

Coordinators

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Emerging technologies and architecture viewpoints
Information viewpoint
Data collection:
Small Satellites
Drones (UAVs)
Direct Broadcast / Direct
Readout
Mobile devices
Internet of Things
Crowdsourcing
Computation viewpoint
Data processing:
Model Webs
Cloud Computing
Big Data analytics
Semantic services
Mobile devices
Location-based services
Collaborative services

18 ESIP IT&I Rant and Rave / Apr. 3, 2014

 Disaster Risk Management Activities
and Emerging Earth Science Technologies

CEOS WGISS-37 / Apr. 17, 2014

Emerging Technologies and Disaster Lifecycle Phases

Technology Warning Response Recovery Mitigation

SmallSats
CubeSats
Drones
Internet of Things
Interoperating Mesonets
Crowdsourcing
Location Based Services
Cloud Computing
Big Data Analytics
Model Webs / MaaS
Semantic Services
Collaboration Services
Satellite Direct Broadcast
New Sensor types
 Emerging Technologies and Hazard types
Earth- Volca- Wind- Land- Wild- Tsuna-
Technology Floods quakes noes Droughts storms slides fires mis Notes
SmallSats
CubeSats
Drones (1)
Internet of Things
Interop. Mesonets
Crowdsourcing
Location Based Svcs.
Cloud Computing
Big Data Analytics
Model Webs / MaaS
Semantic Services
Collaboration Svcs.
Sat. Direct Broadcast
New Sensor types
(1) UNEP Global Alert Service, May 2013
 Towards streamlined integration
of emerging earth science technologies
Architectural viewpoints
Articulate broadly-defined goals and practices
Get beyond ad hoc arrangements and current practice
Clarify data / analysis / communication needs
Semantic content & file / stream formats
Behavior & services / system interactions / interfaces
Facilitate building flexible, sustainable capability
Open industry standards
E.g., OGC SensorML (StarFL?), SOS, W*S, etc.; also IOOS, etc.
E.g., Eucalyptus, OpenStack, MapReduce, ?
Alleviate vendor lock-in; allow creative repurposing
Pace of tech. adoption > pace of consensus processes
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Questions?!

john.evans@gst.com

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