NASA Applied Sciences

Disasters

Georgia Disasters (Fall 2022) Team: Isabella Chittumuri (Project Lead), Nancee Uniyal, Nathan Tesfayi, Shakirah Rogers Summary: In September 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall in southern...

NDVI-processed imagery taken by Landsat 9 OLI-2 in May 2022 of Bryce Canyon National Park and nearby urban area. Healthy vegetation are visualized as bright yellow, while stressed plants, bare earth, and urban areas approach dark red. The continuity of the Landsat program described vegetation response to pervasive drought conditions in Bryce Canyon which the National Park Service can use to when making conservation decisions.

Monitoring Vegetation Health and Water Availability in Bryce Canyon National Park for Drought Stress Mitigation Planning

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Bryce Canyon Water Resources (Fall 2022) Team: Aaron Carr (Project Lead), Mel Frost, Alissa Stark, Ashley Grinstead Summary: Bryce Canyon National Park is home to...

Assessing the Relationship Between Drought Indicators and Wildfire Risk to Enhance Hazard Modeling and Inform Mitigation Planning

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Wildfires

Idaho Wildfires II (Fall 2022) Team: Talissa Cota (Project Lead), Dana Drinkall, Ryan Healey, Tyler Morvant Summary: The western United States has experienced twenty years...

We created an averaged seasonal Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) composite for fall 2020 in the west Tennessee region utilizing NASA’s ECOSTRESS sensor onboard the International Space Station. The ESI reveals areas where vegetation is stressed due to lack of water. Dark blue regions represent areas where vegetation is thriving, compared to the yellow areas, where vegetation is experiencing some water stress.

Leveraging High Resolution Remotely Sensed Data to Assess Water Availability and Vulnerability in the Memphis Aquifer Area in West Tennessee

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Western Tennessee Water Resources (Fall 2022) Team: Lauren Webster (Project Lead), Elena Pilch, Michael Pazmino, Katera Lee Summary: The Memphis Aquifer (MA) is located in...

$Google Earth Engine processed off-shore imagery in the Gulf of Mexico. The image was captured by NASA Earth observations satellite Landsat 9 OLI on March 9, 2022. Colors correspond to fractional reflectance values derived from a multi-band-multi-pass method for detecting methane absorption across bands 6 and 7.$

Mapping Methane Emission Plumes Using Sunglint-configured Imagery for Monitoring Offshore Oil & Gas Activity

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Health & Air Quality

Gulf of Mexico Health & Air Quality II (Fall 2022) Team: Ben Dahan (Project Lead), Melodi Hess, Rene Castillo, Vanessa Machuca Summary: Offshore oil and...

NDTI-processed imagery from Landsat 8 OLI data. This image from October 2021 depicts the turbidity of Keweenaw Bay, western Michigan coastline of Lake Superior. Light blue-colored water indicates greater turbidity while darker blue water is less turbid. Turbid waters indicate coastal erosion and re-distribution of legacy copper mining waste colloquially referred to as "stamp sands". Stamp sands contaminate wetlands and threaten traditional food sources for Indigenous communities along the bay.

Turbidity Data Decision Support for Shoreline Assessment and Management in Lake Superior's Keweenaw Bay

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Keweenaw Bay Water Resources (Fall 2022) Team: Khaim Syed-Raza (Project Lead), Sofia Vahutinsky, Lisa Siewart, Nora Whitelaw-McDonald Summary: The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) has...

NDBI-processed imagery from a June 2022 Landsat 9 OLI-2 image. This composite image shows the cities of Warren (top left) and Youngstown (bottom right). The areas in white and brown represent the built environment. While areas in green represent land that is not as built-up, such as forest. Built-up areas can indicate where surface run off could occur, resulting in pluvial flooding.

Mapping Flood Susceptibility, Vulnerability, and Risk and Tree Canopy Coverage in Northern Ohio to Inform Stormwater Management and Flood Mitigation Efforts

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Disasters

Youngstown & Warren Disasters (Fall 2022) Team: Lauren Mahoney (Project Lead), David Henriques, Nada Haddad, Thomas Ferrell Summary: Both pluvial and fluvial flooding events pose...

Aph(433)-processed imagery from merged Aqua MODIS and Sentinel-3 data. This image of the Gulf of Maine was taken on September 12, 2016 during one of the most severe harmful algal bloom events. Using in-situ data, it was determined that Pseudo-nitzschia was a dominant genus of algae present at the time of the bloom. Shades of bright green indicate peak absorption by phytoplankton and aph(433) is corrected for false positive absorption indications.

Assessing the Use of NASA Earth Observations for Identifying Harmful Algal Blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia in the Gulf of Maine

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Gulf of Maine Water Resources (Fall 2022) Team: Suhani Dalal (Project Lead), Lily Gray, Yixuan Li, Jane Zugarek Summary: The Gulf of Maine has a...

Stormwater retention across Wyandotte County, Kansas. NASA GPM IMERG data for September 2020 – August 2021 and NLCD 2019 Land Cover data were used as model inputs for the InVEST Stormwater Retention Model. One model output included a stormwater retention ratio layer where darker purple values indicate poor stormwater retention and increased flood risk. Areas of poor stormwater retention can then be identified as priority regions for Green Infrastructure initiatives in Wyandotte County.

Analyzing Precipitation and Land Cover Data to Refine the Assessment of Urban Flood Vulnerability

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