The tornado outbreak on 12/10/21 that tore through the southeast caused devastating damage in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and especially Kentucky. The team at MSFC, in support of the NASA Disasters program, is supporting the response and recovery efforts by providing remote sensing analytical support to the Region 4 FEMA remote sensing cell and the state emergency management personnel they represent. Additionally, the team is working to support the National Weather Service with High-resolution imagery to assist in their damage surveys.
The commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program (CSDA) acquires satellite data from commercial vendors that provide direct benefit to NASA’s mission and objectives. Data acquired from one such vendor, Planet Labs PBC, is being leveraged by the Disasters Program at MSFC to support FEMA and the National Weather Service (NWS) in assessing damage from the tornado outbreak. Scientists at MSFC are using the Planet imagery to produce rapid response imagery in the disasters portal to support targeted relief efforts by emergency responders and storm survey guidance to NWS. Availability of the high-resolution imagery provided by the CSDAP provides improved capabilities for the MSFC Disasters Program to support emergency response to natural disasters worldwide.
