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Benefits of GEOSS in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, Earth Observations will:

Aid in storm and hurricane preparation by using satellite data, weather models, Doppler radar, and other information, thereby reducing impacts of natural disasters.

Coastal storms account for 71 percent of recent U.S. disaster losses annually. Each event costs roughly $500 million. With 14 events in a year, losses would total $7 billion per year.1

Facilitate response to and clean-up efforts after flooding by providing residents and official better information on flooding, road loss, and extent of property damage.

Average annual damage from floods is $5.2 billion and over 80 deaths per year nationally.2

Help emergency responders pinpoint the location of technological accidents and oil spills, like the one on Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Philadelphia several years ago. Water monitoring and satellite imagery can help clean-up crews respond faster and to avoid hazards as they work.

Benefit Pennsylvania in its efforts to track storms, plan for drought, and manage wet weather runoff.

Average annual damage from tornadoes, and hurricanes is $6.2 billion nationally, of which:

Protect watersheds though mapping of land cover changes and water quality monitoring along the Susquehanna, Lackawanna, Delaware, and Allegheny Rivers and their tributaries.

Monitor runoff from abandoned mines and track effectiveness of Federal and state efforts to address acid mine runoff.

Enable state and local air quality forecasters to issue to the public more timely, accurate, and site-specific warnings regarding bad air quality so that people (especially the sensitive population) may take prudent actions to protect their health. By 2005, ozone forecasts will be made available along the entire East Coast and by 2009, particulate matter forecasts will be made available.

It is estimated that 31 million Americans including 9 million children have asthma. Ground level ozone in the summer time is the chief cause for poor air quality warnings and human exposure to ozone is known to aggravate asthma. Another component of air, airborne particulate matter, is associated with increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits for people with heart and lung disease and increased work and school absences.4

Children with asthma miss more than 14 million school days annually and asthma accounts for an estimated 14.5 million lost work days per year.5

Help manage large and small farms by providing better local and regional scale temperature, rainfall, and soil moisture information. With Earth observations information, farmers can decide the rate of fertilizer application, placement of seeds, and use of irrigation to maximize crop yield and minimize crop damage.

Monitor wetlands to locate places that are good candidates to promote additional wetlands and monitor wetland conservation programs to help increase the quantity, variety, and functions of wetlands.

Provide more accurate weather forecasting and save Pennsylvanians millions of dollars in heating and cooling costs.

The value of understanding the interrelationships between weather variables and electric load can save a small utility at least $0.5 M annually through improved temperature forecasts.6



1 The H. John Heinz III Center for Science Economics and the Environment, The Hidden Costs of Coastal Hazards: Implications for Risk Assessment and Mitigation, Island Press, 2000, Washington, D.C.

2 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, and the Atmospheric Policy Program of the American Meteorological Society, 2001, Extreme Weather Sourcebook 2001: Economic and Other Societal Impacts Related to Hurricanes, Floods, Tornadoes, Lightning, and Other U.S. Weather Phenomena, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo. Available only online at http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/sourcebook/data.html

3 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Environmental and Societal Impacts Group, and the Atmospheric Policy Program of the American Meteorological Society, 2001, Extreme Weather Sourcebook 2001: Economic and Other Societal Impacts Related to Hurricanes, Floods, Tornadoes, Lightning, and Other U.S. Weather Phenomena, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo. Available only online at http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/sourcebook/data.html

4 U.S. Centers for Disease Control

5 CDC. Surveillance for asthma: United States, 1980-1999. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2002;51(SS01):1-13

6 Tribble, A.N., 2003: The relationship between weather variables and electricity demand to improve short-term load forecasting. Ph. D. dissertation, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, 221 pp., from Building The National Cooperative Mesonet: Program Development Plan For COOP Modernization dated October 2003.

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