An operational multiscale system for hazards prediction, mapping, and response

Abstract

By definition, a crisis is a situation that requires assistance to be managed. Hence, response to a crisis involves the merging of local and non-local emergency response personnel. In this situation, it is critical that each participant: (1) know the roles and responsibilities of each of the other participants; (2) know the capabilities of each of the participants; and (3) have a common basis for action. For many types of natural disasters, this entails having a common operational picture of the unfolding events, including detailed information on the weather, both current and forecasted, that may impact on either the emergency itself or on response activities. The Consequences Assessment Tool Set (CATS) is a comprehensive package of hazard prediction models and casualty and damage assessment tools that provides a linkage between a modeled or observed effect and the attendant consequences for populations, infrastructure, and resources, and, hence, provides the common operational picture for emergency response. The Operational Multiscale Environment model with Grid Adaptivity (OMEGA) is an atmospheric simulation system that links the latest methods in computational fluid dynamics and high-resolution gridding technologies with numerical weather prediction to provide specific weather analysis and forecast capability that can be merged into the geographic information system framework of CATS. This paper documents the problem of emergency response as an end-to-end system and presents the integrated CATS-OMEGA system as a prototype of such a system that has been used successfully in a number of different situations.

Investigation of local flow features in Istanbul. Part I: high‐resolution sensitivity simulations

“…The variable resolution and adaptive nature of the OMEGA grid can, for example, adapt to urban plumes, thus resolving the large‐scale dynamics as well as the local scale circulations associated with fine scale representation of urban outflow (Bacon, ). The OMEGA model evaluation studies give the details of the model performances for different aspects such as aerosol and gas hazard prediction, dispersion, hurricane forecast and local circulation (Boybeyi et al , , ; Bacon et al , , ; Gopalakrishnan et al , ).…”

A nonhydrostatic unstructured-mesh soundproof model for simulation of internal gravity waves

“…the collection of papers in Nikiforakis (2009) -with the advent of multiscale Earth-system modeling and climate prediction. A notable advancement is the OMEGA model of Bacon et al (2000) for forecasting high-impact weather, air quality, and environmental hazard; see Bacon et al (2008) for a recent overview. In spite of a high level of activity, generally, adaptivemesh atmospheric models have not yet met the demands of modern operational weather prediction and climate studies, as reviewed in Miller and Smolarkiewicz (2008).…”

Combining Satellite and Geospatial Technologies for Exploring Rainstorm Hazard Over Mediterranean Central Area

“…For Southern Italy, in particular, the catstrophic events of Sarno in 1998 (Mazzarella & Diodato, 2002), with the more recent devastating deluges in Naples in 2001,2003,2004,2006, and in southeastern of Sicily in 2009, were caused by extremes rain of 100-400 mm fallen in few hours over little areas. Therefore, global vision in remote sensing coverage and surveillance loop are important, since we do not know where an event might take place (Bacon et al, 2008). However, estimating rainfall from satellite imagery is rather complex (Ymeti, 2007), and due to limited success of deterministic rainstorm impact modelling techniques (Heneker et al, 2001).…”