Meteorology authority improves climate forecast systems

Advances in meteorological technology have helped drive down the fatality rate from tornadoes in the U.S. to a fraction of what it was a century ago. Violent tornadoes rarely evade advance detection, thanks to weather satellites, advances in radar, and a communication system to announce warnings. The deadly tornadoes that struck Kentucky and other states in December 2021 illustrate the ways in which even this system – one scientist called it "one of the most incredible success stories in applied science" – can fail, including when people ignore warnings or buildings cannot withstand the high winds.

In coastal cities in India, floods have led to hundreds of deaths and millions of people being displaced. To address the issue, scientists had to address a variety of factors: hydrology of the upstream region; river, tidal, and storm surge modeling; and a high-resolution digital elevation map of the city. A group of scientists from 13 research institutes and government organizations looked at all those factors and came up with a real-time flood forecasting system. It generated 800 flood scenarios. When it rains the model predicts the most vulnerable sites.

As natural disasters become more prevalent - and more destructive - government at all levels is doing more to ensure that emergency alerts can reach everyone with mobile phones in the event of an evacuation or safety alerts. Solutions include state-wide systems, where counties collaborate with each other, as opposed to the old system where many counties were on their own, as well as layered systems to ensure a more accurate list of people to contact.

Scientists in Mexico are deploying instruments to create a network using GPS, pressure and seismic data, to track the movement of tectonic plates with the goal of creating models of earthquakes and tsunamis that would help mitigate loss of life in the next disaster. The decision to focus on the Guerrero Gap was prompted by the 2011 quake and resulting tsunami that devastated parts of Japan. That came from an event similar to what happens in the Gap, prompting a Japanese scientistic group to invest in the research in Mexico.

RiverAware, an app that uses real-time data from a national network of gauges, has helped citizens, first responders, floodplain managers, scientists, and recreational users such as paddlers and anglers access river-flow data, informing or alerting communities as to when it's time to evacuate or seek higher ground. The data is aggregated from more than 13,000 stream-gauging stations around the country maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Weather Service.

Two decades after a massive cyclone killed close to 10,000 people in India's Odisha state, the government's efforts to protect coastal villages vulnerable to cyclones and tsunamis has produced a host of safety measures, from reinforced shelters and early-warning systems to search and evacuation training. Two villages were singled out as the first in the Indian Ocean region to achieve UNESCO's "tsunami ready" certification. A drill in 2019 showed how quickly villagers were trained to respond to an imminent threat.

Identifying the metagenomic sequencing for new outbreaks of viruses can help to better assess how the virus is spreading, which in turn helps health officials figure out how to slow down the contagion. In the midst of a coronavirus outbreak, a tool that was first used to during the SARS outbreak is now being used to track Covid-19 in under-resourced places such as Cambodia.

Efforts to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing also make fishermen safer at sea. Vessel Monitoring Mechanisms (VMM) and electronic catch documentation (eCDT) track the origin of fish headed to market, part of an international effort to ensure sustainable and equitable practices. Data transmission also makes fishermen safer, relaying their locations from hundreds of miles out at sea. In the Philippines, a partnership between Futuristic Aviation and Maritime Enterprise (FAME) and USAID Oceans and Fisheries Partnership helps cover subscription fees for FAME radio transmitter service.

Around the world, communities are creating new technologies, processes, and relationships to the land in an effort to adapt to the changing climate. From the I-Kiribati using new hydroponic systems to grow food amidst rising sea levels, to farmers in Telangana using sustainable greenhouse technology, to the use of solar panels on Indigenous lands like Little Buffalo, those that depend on the land the most are having to adapt first. Underscoring each response is a collaborative, collective resilience.

Collecting data in the moments after a natural disaster occurs is key to understanding their impact as well as increasing preparedness. When a disaster strikes, the RAPID Facility, a partnership between several universities headquartered at the University of Washington, dispatches researchers armed with drones and other high tech to collect crucial data such as aerial photos of disaster zones, and 3D images of damage. RAPID then makes the data publicly available in an effort to improve hazard forecasts.