Emergency Response and the LSU Earth Scan Lab: A Tale of Two Siblings

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Emergency Response and the LSU Earth Scan Lab
A Tale of Two Siblings

• Alaric S. Haag
• haag_at_lsu.edu
• L o u i s i a n a S t a t e U n i v e r s i t
  y
• C o a s t a l S t u d i e s I n s t i t u t e
• E a r t h S c a n L a b o r a t o r y
• http//www.esl.lsu.edu

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Emergency Response

• Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness (LOEP)
• Home to many state agencies during an event!
• LSU Hurricane Center
• Southern Regional Climate Center
• LSU Earth Scan Laboratory
• .
• .

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Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparednesshttp//
www.loep.state.la.us

• Originally managed by appointed state employees
• Communication by phone, FAX, etc
• Then

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LOEP (cont.)

• Management taken over by National Guard (1992)
• General Landreneau, Dir.
• Colonel Brown, Asst. Dir.
• Obtained funding for ESLs GOES capability (1995)
• Dedicated network connection to ESL (1996)
• New state-of-the-art facility (2002)

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LOEP (cont.)
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LOEP (cont.)
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LOEP (cont.)
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LSU Hurricane Centerhttp//www.hurricane.lsu.edu

• Prof. Mark Levitan, Dir.
• The MISSION of the LSU HURRICANE CENTER
  is to advance the state-of-knowledge of
  hurricanes and their impacts on the natural,
  built, and human environments to stimulate new
  interdisciplinary / collaborative research
  activities to transfer this knowledge and
  technology to students and professionals in
  concerned disciplines and to assist the state,
  the nation, and the world in solving
  hurricane-related problems.

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LSU Hurr. Center (cont.)

• Primary focus in ER is storm surge modeling

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LSU Hurr. Center (cont.)

• Primary focus in ER is storm surge modeling

• Oh and by the way

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SuperMike Beowulf Clusterhttp//www.lsu.edu/lsu
capital

• LSU resource
• 512-node, dual-CPU
• 1.8GHz Xeon proc.
• MyraNet interconnect
• 2.2 teraflops
• 3 academic compute resource in the world!
• Current effort at LSU Hurricane Center to put
  ADCIRC model on SuperMike

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Southern Regional Climate Centerhttp//www.srcc.l
su.edu

• Prof. Kevin Robbins, Dir.
• One of six (6) national RCCs
• Purview over six (6) states AR, LA, TX, MS, TN,
  OK
• Climatological warehouse
• NOAAport node
• Home to LOSC (State Climatologist)

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Earth Scan Laboratoryhttp//www.esl.lsu.edu

• Profs. Oscar Huh, Nan Walker, Co-Dirs.
• Ground station
• Antennae
• 3.6m geostationary
• 1m L-band HRPT tracking
• 4.4m X-band tracking
• Telemetries
• GVAR
• HRPT
• SeaWiFS
• MODIS
• OCM
• SAR

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ESL Radio Horizon
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ESL (cont.)

• Archive of data
• HRPT 1988-present
• GOES 1996-present (limited amount)
• SeaWiFS 1997-present
• MODIS 2001-present
• OCM 2001-present

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ESL (cont.)

• SeaSpace Terascan software
• TeraVision visualization package
• Auto-animation feature
• Palette edit give simple contouring
• (Pssst! Looking forward to value palettes!!)

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ESL (cont.)

• SeaSpace Terascan software (cont.)
• TeraPGS product generation
• Fixed image generation for web, animations, etc
• send_pass/recv_pass communication to LOEP station
  gives effective real-time data flow between LSU
  and LOEP

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ESL WV loophttp//www.esl.lsu.edu
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ESL IR loophttp//www.esl.lsu.edu
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In an Event

• LOEP issues activation order
• ESL staffs agency station 24x7 until released
• Faculty, staff, student workers
• Immediate need to task individuals
• Scheduling of shifts (both ESL LOEP)
• Establish media liason
• Confirm integrity of data flow
• Establish backup electrical power sources
• Spread contact info among related players
• Tweak state network
• Check the tropics!

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In an Event

• Support briefings issued throughout event
• Audience
• All state agency reps in Emergency Ops. Center
• LOEP Director (General), Asst. Dir. (Col.),
  Governors Office in Executive Overwatch
• Parish Emergency Managers (via video/conf. calls)
• Local media
• Tandem work with SRCC, NWS
• ESL-imagery, SRCC-surface obs, NWS-forecasting
• NWS/NHC conference calls

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In an Event

• State agencies utilize message-passing software
  (E-Team) to manage communications

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In an Event

• Hurricane Lili evacuation map (LOEP)

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In an Event

• Shelters by parish (LOEP)

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In an Event (cont.)

• SRCC Staff includes State Climatologist
• Faculty meteorologist, S. A. Hsu

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In an Event (cont.)

• SRCCs NOAAport capability
• COMSAT link to complete NWS text products

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NWS Text Products

• AXNT20 KNHC 190008
• TWDAT
• TROPICAL WEATHER DISCUSSION
• NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
• 805 PM EDT FRI 18 APR 2003
• TROPICAL WEATHER DISCUSSION FOR NORTH
  AMERICA...CENTRAL
• AMERICA...GULF OF MEXICO...CARIBBEAN SEA...AND
  ATLANTIC OCEAN
• TO THE AFRICAN COAST FROM THE EQUATOR TO 32N
  INCLUDING NORTHERN
• SECTIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA. THE FOLLOWING
  INFORMATION IS BASED
• ON SATELLITE IMAGERY...WEATHER OBSERVATIONS...RADA
  R...AND
• METEOROLOGICAL ANALYSIS.
• BASED ON 1800 UTC SURFACE ANALYSIS AND SATELLITE
  IMAGERY THROUGH
• 2315 UTC.
• SPECIAL FEATURES...
• NONE.

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In an Event (cont.)

• SRCCs NOAAport capability
• COMSAT link to complete NWS text products
• GEMPAK interface to graphical products

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METAR Wind Observations (SRCC)
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Composite Doppler Radar (SRCC)
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Doppler Radial Velocity (SRCC)
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In an Event (cont.)

• We DONT forecast!!

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In an Event (cont.)

• Web resources are invaluable!
• Model Track Output
• http//www.hurricanealley.net
• USGS Buoy Data
• http//www.ndbc.noaa.gov
• USGS River Stage Monitors
• http//waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis

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The Two Siblings

• InfraRed loop
• Water Vapor loop

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Thanks for listening!

• Thanks also to
• My hosts
• ESL faculty, staff, students
• SRCC
• LOEP