Teresa Howard, MAGIC Coordinator/Research Associate, UT-Austin Center for Space Research Presented at the 2011 Texas GIS Forum

1. Early Warning Forecast of an Oil Spill:
BP Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf
Teresa Howard, Casey Dietrich & Corey Trahan
The University of Texas at Austin
Texas GIS Forum
October 27, 2011

2. NASA Terra MODIS
May 17, 2010 at 1636 UTC
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on May 17, 2010 at 1136 am CDT

3. UT Center for Space Research DBRS Antennas at West Pickle Research
1.5-meter S/L-Band 4.5-meter X-Band 2.4-meter X-Band

6. Nearshore Oil Transport : Motivation
Satellite imagery can only show current location of the slick
- Where will the oil move?
- What happens if a hurricane approaches?
Forecasts need to be accurate and fast
- Share computed circulation with NOAA,
other spill modelers
- Share oil transport with emergency managers
in real time ( http://adcirc.org/oilspill )

7. Nearshore Oil Transport : Methods
WINDS
Provided by NCEP ( http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/ )
from WRF-NMM ( http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/ ),
downloaded and converted to our format.
CURRENTS
Waves from SWAN ( http://swanmodel.sourceforge.net/ )
and circulation from ADCIRC ( http://www.adcirc.org/ ),
INITIAL CONDITIONS
with currents provided hourly to the tracking model. NESDIS ( http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/ )
provided slick extents, which were
digitized and provided to the tracking model.
OIL TRANSPORT
Waves from SWAN ( http://swanmodel.sourceforge.net/ )
and circulation from ADCIRC ( http://www.adcirc.org/ ),
with currents provided hourly to the tracking model.
EMERGENCY MANAGERS
Animations posted online ( http://www.adcirc.org/oilspill/ ).

8. Prepare oil slick for particle tracking
1. Obtain oil slick extent vector polygons from NOAA NESDIS.
2. Intersect oil slick polygons with water depth boundaries:
near coast, < 100 meters deep above the continental shelf,
and deep ocean waters (> 100 m deep).
3. Convert oil slick polygons to raster of 50 meter grid elements
with attribute initial water depth interval.
4. Convert grid elements to point vectors
5. Calculate x,y coordinates in longitude and latitude.
6. Output ASCII initial particle location file.

9. Validation : Mid-June

10. Validation : Mid-June

11. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 13 / 1548 UTC

12. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 14 / 1151 UTC ( + 20 hr / + 0.8 d )

13. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 15 / 1151 UTC ( + 44 hr / + 1.8 d )

14. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 16 / 0140 UTC ( + 58 hr / + 2.4 d )

15. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 16 / 1555 UTC ( + 72 hr / + 3.0 d )

16. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 17 / 1150 UTC ( + 92 hr / + 3.8 d )

17. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 18 / 1109 UTC ( + 115 hr / + 4.8 d )

18. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 18 / 1637 UTC ( + 121 hr / + 5.0 d )

19. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 19 / 0341 UTC ( + 132 hr / + 5.5 d )

20. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 19 / 1730 UTC ( + 148 hr / + 6.2 d )

21. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 19 / 2330 UTC ( + 152 hr / + 6.3 d )

22. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 20 / 1150 UTC ( + 164 hr / + 6.8 d )

23. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 21 / 1613 UTC ( + 192 hr / + 8.0 d )

24. 06/13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
2010 / 06 / 22 / 0348 UTC ( + 204 hr / + 8.5 d )

25. Validation : Hurricane Alex (2010)
Made initial landfall in Belize
and tracked over
Yucatan Peninsula
Strengthened in southern
Gulf of Mexico to
Category 2 storm before
making landfall in
Mexico
Limited useable satellite
imagery

26. Validation : Hurricane Alex (2010)

27. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 06 / 29 / 0044 UTC

28. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 06 / 29 / 1546 UTC ( + 15 hr / + 0.6 d )

29. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 06 / 29 / 2332 UTC ( + 23 hr / + 0.9 d )

30. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 06 / 30 / 1155 UTC ( + 35 hr / + 1.4 d )

31. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 06 / 30 / 2355 UTC ( + 47 hr / + 1.9 d )

32. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 07 / 02 / 1156 UTC ( + 83 hr / + 3.4 d )

33. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 07 / 02 / 1552 UTC ( + 87 hr / + 3.6 d )

34. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 07 / 03 / 1156 UTC ( + 107 hr / + 4.4 d )

35. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 07 / 04 / 1635 UTC ( + 136 hr / + 5.7 d )

36. 06/29 30 07/01 02 03 04 05 06
2010 / 07 / 05 / 0008 UTC ( + 136 hr / + 5.7 d )

37. www.adcirc.org/oilspill

38. Oil transport project participants
JC Dietrich, CJ Trahan, CN Dawson L Yu, A Lu
Institute for Computational Engineering and Department of Computer Science,
Sciences, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte
University of Texas at Austin
K Vega, A Kubach
MT Howard, G Wells
Texas Advanced Computing Center, University
Center for Space Research, of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
KM Dresback, RL Kolar
JG Fleming School of Civil Engineering and Environmental
Science,
Seahorse Coastal Consulting, Morehead City, University of Oklahoma
North Carolina
RJ Weaver, RA Luettich Jr C Kaiser
Dept. of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences,
Institute of Marine Sciences, Louisiana State University
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
RR Twilley
S Tanaka, JJ Westerink
Dept. of Civil Engineering and Geological Vice President for Research,
Sciences, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Notre Dame

39. Acknowledgements:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Institute of
Marine Sciences
University of Notre Dame Computational Hydraulics
Laboratory
University of Texas Computational Hydraulics Groups,
ICES
University of Texas Center for Space Research
Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Texas
NOAA/NESDIS/Satellite Analysis Branch, Experimental
Marine Pollution Surveillance Program
Seahorse Coastal Consulting

40. Funding for this work was provided by:
National Science Foundation TeraGrid
National Science Foundation RAPID Grant—Office of
Cyberinfrastructure
Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology
Directorate through the Center of Excellence for
Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and
Emergency Management (DIEM)
NOAA IOOS Program

41. And now for something
entirely different….

42. Texas Wildfires
Gordon Wells, Larry Teng,
Solar Smith & Teresa Howard
UT Center for Space Research
Photo by Frank Cianciolo McDonald Observatory
Sr. Program Coordinator
McDonald Obs. / Bash Visitors Center
April 23, 2011, at 2201 CDT
University of Texas at Austin

43. Landsat 7 ETM+
April 24, 2011 at 1221 CDT
Active Fire Front SWIR/VNIR Channels 7,4,2
Controlled Burn
McDonald
Observatory Rock House Fire: Northern Margin
(April 24, 2011)

44. NASA Terra MODIS
April 15, 2011 at 1243 CDT
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Wildfires on April 15 at 1243 CDT

45. NASA Terra MODIS
April 15, 2011 at 1243 CDT
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
Copper Mountain Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Ranch
PK West
Frying Pan
Ranch
Wildcat
Rockhouse
Pearce Ranch
El Bonito
La Sabina
Wildfires on April 15 at 1243 CDT

46. NASA Terra MODIS
April 15, 2011 at 1243 CDT
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Copper Mountain
Ranch
PK West
Wildcat
Wildfires on April 15 at 1243 CDT

47. NASA Aqua MODIS
April 15, 2011 at 1419 CDT
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Copper Mountain
Ranch
PK West
Wildcat
Wildfires on April 15 at 1419 CDT

48. Landsat 7 ETM+
April 24, 2011 at 1221 CDT
Thermal/SWIR/VNIR Channels 7,4,2 + 6
Active fire
front (4/24)
Area of the controlled
burn (4/23-24)
Rock House Fire
Burn Scar
McDonald
Observatory
Hobby-Eberly
Rock House Fire: Northern Margin
Telescope Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper-Plus (4/24/11)

49. Rock House Fire on May 2 at 1217 CDT
McDonald
Observatory
Fort Davis
Roper Ranch
Fire Burn Scar
Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper
May 2, 2011 at 1217 CDT
SWIR/VNIR Channels 7,4,2
Marfa Processed by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin

50. French SPOT 4 HRVIR
April 29, 2011 at 1205 CDT
SWIR/VNIR Channels 4,3,1
Collected by U.S. Air Force Eagle Vision
Processed by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Deaton Cole Fire: Google Earth Display
SPOT 4 HRVIR (4/29: 1300) & Terra MODIS Firepoints (4/29: 1205)

51. NASA Aqua MODIS
April 28, 2011 at 1508 CDT
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Killough Swenson
Cooper
Mountain
PK
Complex
Last Chance
Wildcat
Rock House
Deaton
Cole
Bonito
La Sabina
April Burn Scars

52. Aqua MODIS Firepoints
September 9, 2011 at 1449 CDT
Collected by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Res., UT-Austin
Magnolia
Values = Fire Radiative Power in Megawatts

53. French SPOT 4 HRVIR
September 12, 2011 at 1155 CDT
SWIR/VNIR Channels 4,3,2
Collected by U.S. Air Force Eagle Vision
Processed by the MAGIC DBRS,
Center for Space Research, UT-Austin
Magnolia
Riley Road/Crown Ranch Fire Burn Scar

54. Bastrop County Complex Fire
GeoEye Ikonos-2 Pan/VNIR
September 8, 2011 at 1220 CDT

55. Intact and destroyed residences in Tahitian Village, Texas Civil Air Patrol
Bastrop County. September 16, 2011 at 1140 CDT

56. Residences destroyed by ground fire. Texas Civil Air Patrol
September 16, 2011 at 1141 CDT

57. http://magic.csr.utexas.edu/Event/11TxWildfires
Residence with a green yard destroyed Texas Civil Air Patrol
by ground fire. September 16, 2011 at 1144 CDT

58. John Nielson-Gammon,
State Climatologist

59. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NASA Terra MODIS
August 29, 2006
MODIS telemetry received and processed by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin

60. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NASA Terra MODIS
August 29, 2007
MODIS telemetry received and processed by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin

61. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NASA Terra MODIS
August 29, 2008
MODIS telemetry received and processed by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin

62. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NASA Terra MODIS
August 29, 2009
MODIS telemetry received and processed by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin

63. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NASA Terra MODIS
August 29, 2010
MODIS telemetry received and processed by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin

64. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NASA Terra MODIS
August 29, 2011
MODIS telemetry received and processed by the MAGIC DBRS
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin

65. January - September Satellite Thermal Detections, 2002-2011
16000
14000
12000
Satellite Thermal Detections
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Year
NASA MODIS thermal detections (Fire Radiative Power >1 megawatt) in Texas collected by the MAGIC DBRS,
University of Texas at Austin