NASA’s Disasters Program - From Response to Resilience
Region Americas
Summary
In 2023, devastating wildfires in Maui swept through Lahaina causing 5.5 billion dollars in damages and destroying 2,200 structures. These wildfires demonstrated how rapidly extreme events can overwhelm communities and how essential timely, trusted information is for decision-makers. NASA’s Disasters Program worked across centers and with partners to deliver satellite-based damage assessments – most notably the ALOS‑2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-derived damage proxy maps and Sentinel‑2 burn-area products – that equipped responders with actionable intelligence when smoke, debris, and restricted access hindered traditional assessments. These products helped federal, state, and nonprofit partners rapidly identify the most affected neighborhoods, allocate resources, and guide both operational response and early recovery planning. The activation also highlighted NASA’s growing emphasis on resilience: using Earth observations not just to understand disaster impacts after they occur, but to strengthen preparedness and reduce risk.
The Program continued to support community resilience to natural hazards when, after another disaster response activation, partners expressed concern about the location and quantity of debris. Hurricane Helene produced major and widespread damage across western North Carolina. Fallen trees and other debris fuel wildfires, block transportation corridors and prevent recovery efforts. By identifying statistically significant debris “hot spots,” the program is working to provide emergency managers with a decision-ready tool for recovery planning and risk reduction.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)-informed debris assessments, rapid access to civil and commercial earth observations, and cutting edge applied disaster science represent more than technical advancements – these directly address challenges across the disaster lifecycle, where rapid, trusted earth observations and applications support both immediate response and long-term community resilience.
The NASA Disasters Program works to address response, recovery, risk, and resilience from event‑specific support to scalable, anticipatory, and repeatable methods that reduce vulnerability across geographies. By combining local partner insights with Earth observation science – and delivering tools through the Disasters PORTAL – the program strengthens communities’ ability to anticipate cascading impacts, accelerate recovery, and build long‑term resilience.
Value Chain Diagram
Decide
- Emergency management partners use these products to make disaster response and recovery decisions, including resource allocation, search and relief prioritization, and resilience planning
Apply
- Mapped products via the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal provide centralized, open-access GIS layers, making it easier for FEMA, WCK, PDC, and local stakeholders to pull EO data into their tools for response, recovery, risk reduction, and resilience
Data production
- A unified NASA response team processes data and posts products to the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal
- NASA-funded PIs produce recovery and resilience-focused products such as the debris assessment
- Damage Proxy Map generated by ARIA
- Burn scar maps
- High-resolution optical imagery from Planet Labs
- Land surface temperature data
Sense
- ALOS-2 SAR data from JAXA
- Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 and European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2
- Planet Labs Flock constellation, enabled by NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program
- NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS)
Decision-Making Context and Needs
- Challenges addressed: Compound hazards and cascading impacts (extreme winds, rapid fire spread, widespread destruction) created urgent, evolving information needs for responders and humanitarian organizations. Earth observation (EO) products helped fill observation gaps, provide consistent geographic coverage, and support cross-agency coordination in a fast‑moving crisis.
- Who was involved: NASA’s Disasters team, including funded science teams, the Disaster Response Coordination System across multiple NASA centers, including the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/Caltech for Damage Proxy Map (DPM) generation, and partners such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), World Central Kitchen, and the Pacific Disaster Center.
How EO data (and other inputs) are supported
- EO data: SAR and optical satellite observations provided damage and burn mapping, plus pre-event and post-event context, crucial for allocating search and relief teams, planning debris management, and prioritizing community services.
- Other inputs: The ARIA team conducted preliminary validation using media reports and other imagery, increasing user confidence in the DPM while communicating appropriate use of the products. DRCS frameworks and the Disasters Mapping Portal’s open, standardized delivery further supported multi‑stakeholder coordination and repeatable integration into local workflows.
Earth Observation Data Products and Information
- Damage Proxy Map (DPM) – ALOS‑2 SAR (ARIA/JPL-Caltech): Highlighted zones of likely structural damage and supported response triage, directing teams toward hardest‑hit neighborhoods. (Available on ARIA Share, JPL’s public data repository, and the Disasters Mapping Portal).
- Sentinel‑2 Burn and Pre- and Post-Event Imagery: Delivered intuitive before-and-after views that responders and recovery planners used to visualize burn severity and extent.
- Mapped products via the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal: Centralized, open‑access GIS layers, made it easier for FEMA, WCK, PDC, and local stakeholders to pull EO data into their operational tools. This approach directly mitigates common information gaps (fragmented data sources, inconsistent formats, slow distribution) that impede rapid situational awareness in complex disasters.
How those products solved challenges
- Speed and accessibility: Rapid SAR‑based damage mapping without daylight or clear skies addressed cloud and smoke issues and the need for immediate situational awareness while ground access was limited.
- Operational integration: Publishing in standard GIS formats through the Disasters Mapping Portal accelerated uptake by emergency operations centers, enabling layering with local datasets (roads, shelters, utility networks) for actionable decision support.
- Transparency and caveats: Clear guidance on DPM limitations over vegetation helped users interpret products responsibly, reducing misapplication and improving on‑the‑ground efficiency.
Underlying Observations and Data Sources
- ALOS‑2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA): Pre-event and post-event images (July 17, 2022, June 18, 2023, and Aug. 13, 2023) powered the Damage Proxy Map, which flags pixels with increased scatterer change – interpreted as likely damage to buildings and structures; the activation page notes pixel size of approximately 30 square meters and advises caution when interpreting results over vegetated areas.
- Copernicus Sentinel‑2 color‑infrared imagery (Aug. 9, and Aug. 14, 2023) was used for pre-event and post-event burn visualization, clearly mapping burned zones around Lahaina to support impact assessment.
- Disasters Mapping Portal and ARIA Share served as distribution points for the damage and burn products, enabling open, standardized GIS access for partners in their existing workflows. The Portal is central to the Disasters Program’s model of delivering trusted, timely, and actionable science.
Impacts and Benefits
- Human impact and context: The Maui fires were described as the deadliest U.S. wildfires in more than a century, with catastrophic loss concentrated in and around Lahaina. Beyond the immediate destruction of homes, businesses, and cultural heritage, the disaster created recovery challenges that require sustained community support and scientific expertise.
- What the work accomplished: NASA’s Disasters team rapidly coordinated across centers to deliver decision-ready maps and scientific expertise – notably a DPM derived from ALOS-2 SAR – to identify likely damaged structures and burned areas. These products gave responders and humanitarian groups actionable insight on where to allocate scarce resources, helping to prioritize search, relief, and recovery under extremely challenging conditions.
- Primary beneficiaries: FEMA, World Central Kitchen, Pacific Disaster Center (PDC), and other operational stakeholders were among the direct beneficiaries. NASA supported affected residents of Maui through better‑targeted aid and planning enabled by the maps and data shared through the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal.