NASA applications and applied research on industrial incidents help emergency preparedness leaders develop mitigation approaches — such as early warning systems — and provide information and maps to response and recovery teams.
In 2016, a nighttime fire at a power plant substation in Puerto Rico knocked out power to nearly 1.5 million customers. From space, the effects appeared dramatic. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite captured images that helped response personnel before and after the outage.
![Dive Ops working to repair seal in Piney Point NGS-South in April 2021. Credits: Florida Department of Environmental Protection](/sites/default/files/styles/lis/public/2021-05/piney-point-dive-ops-1_original.jpg.webp?itok=Djq9DiGD)
![NASA's ARIA team with the Earth Observatory of Singapore, used satellite data to map the extent of likely damage following a massive explosion in Beirut. Dark red pixels represent the most severe possible damage.](/sites/default/files/styles/lis/public/2020-08/lebanon-DPM-8-4-20.jpg.webp?itok=H4RKjaBU)