Public Health Session: 16th Federation Meeting Jan 4-6, 2006 Notes/Highlights

Public Health Cluster Presentation Notes

Combining Modeling Using Earth Observation Data to Improve Public Health Decisions

PHAiRS Team
CCSP Workshop
Climate Science in Support of Decision Making

PHAiRS team deals with dust in the southwest

Team has scientists from UNM, UA -- Public Health partners include: City of Lubbock Dept. of Heatlh, Pima County Dept. of Environmental Quality, Arizona Dept. of Health Services, NM Dept. of Health, ARES Corporation

Public Health Applications in Remote Sensing (PHAiRS)

Focus on SW, dust storms, respiratory diseases, and syndromic surveillance
3 Thrusts
- Assimilate EO data into DREAM (dust generation model) as part of NCEP/Eta forecasting system (source for most weather models)
- Measure incremental improvements to DREAM outputs as inputs to RSVP/SYRIS
- Create collaborations with public health authorities to validate relationships between dust episodes and respiratory complaints

New Mexico/Texas Dust Storm - Dec. 2003

One of the first tasks was to validate the DREAM model as it was written. It was developed for the Mediterranean region, but had to be tested in the Southwest US.

DREAM model requires data from a vast domain, so need to add EO data to narrow the focus.

An addition of just one EO dataset greatly affects the model output.

Question is then, How much more can we improve the model output if we add more EO datasets?

FPAR, category 253(barren, sparse) is where we want to see how EO data can improve. We need to go back to MODIS science team and tell them we need Category 253 updated.

Enhancing Decision Support Tools

PHAiRS Dust Modeling Client - (Uses EPA Air Quality data and exceedence values) 48-hour dust forecast for Dodge City, Kansas - Model can show for two days in advance what is headed in their direction. This is the sort of info that can be beneficial to Public Health Officials.

Several improvements are being made to the model itself, and hopefully improvements to the data assimilated.

Relevance to CCSP

More emphasis is being placed on PM 2.5 -- Model can show where respiratory/aerosols affect mortality rates.

Infectious diseases are globally found more in the Northern Hemisphere -- may be attributable to the ring of aerosols circulating around the hemisphere

RSVP draws school nurses, doctros, public health departments, air quality people, etc.

SYRIS follow-on is close to being adopted by Counties in west Texas

PHAiRS job is to enhance the DREAM model to produce outputs of the DREAM model for web usage.

Trying to make PHAiRS quasi-operational during NPOESS, but if NPOESS is in trouble...then so is PHAiRS

How can this satellite data aid the Public Health arena, who has been doing well without this type of data in the past?

Need to demonstrate the model

Action Items

Stan Morain will send Syndromic Surveillance Proceedings (obtain copies for distribution)
- Next Syndromic Surveillance meeting = Oct. 18-20, 2006
Determine Cluster Steward (Stan Morain chosen)-DONE
Monthly telecons or as-needed
Populate/determine structure of EIE Public Health Cluster website
Request data/venue of next ESIP Fed. Meeting

Goals of the Cluster

Federation representation at the GEO ADM workshop in Geneva
To advance Federation profile internationally
Use portal to find others interested in public health issues, (i.e. community of users)
Ensure quality content regarding Public Health when Portal is operational
Reach out to more external providers for more public health data
Portal is not just for metadata -- must include information as well to attract end-users in the public health community
Identify funding sources (other than NASA, i.e. NIH) to address public health issues
Encourage intra-federation collaborations for projects
Identify/Invite Public Health representative(s) to next ESIP Fed. Meeting (from NIH, Dan Sosin from CDC)

Public Health Cluster Contact List