Benefits of GEOSS in Utah

In Utah, Earth Observations will:

Enable state and local air quality forecasters to issue to the public more timely, accurate, and site-specific warnings about episodes of poor air quality so that people (especially the sensitive population) may take prudent actions to protect their health.

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.¹

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.²

Track the smoke plume direction and air quality effects of wild and hazardous material fires. Earth observations will also allow prediction of emergency costs for lost property and habitat, fire fighting, rebuilding, and the economic costs of human health impact from smoke inhalation.

Severe fire seasons due to drought and frequent winds can result in billions of dollars in damages. The Western Fire Season of Spring-Summer 2000 resulted in nearly seven million acres burned and an estimated $2 billion in damage costs (includes fire suppression).³

Monitor drought conditions for agriculture and forestry and help farmers, agribusiness, and local water management authorities better manage water resources.

Drought is estimated to result in average annual losses to all sectors of the economy of between $6-8 billion nationally.⁴

Improve management of Federal and state lands (National Parks, Forests, grazing lands) by providing increased access to integrated data sets of weather, land use, land changes, geology, water monitoring data, air quality data, etc. Affected areas include Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion National Parks.

Help protect surface and underground drinking water sources through water quality monitoring and land use data.

Enhance monitoring of snow pack and snow melt allowing ski resorts and water managers in Utah to better predict the impacts on resort management, and water management systems.

Help track invasive species, and predict where the species will spread based on our knowledge of the climate, soil, and the plant species itself.

Provide more accurate weather forecasting and save the state 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.⁵

Help protect watersheds through water quality monitoring and mapping of land cover changes; thereby, protecting sources of water for agriculture, forestry, and human uses.

Aid in meteorological predictions of El Niño events and other high and lower water years; thereby, helping to predict snow pack (for water and recreational use), and manage drought years, major spring floods, and water levels in streams and lakes that receive snow pack runoff.

Overall, the 1997-1998 El Niño is estimated to have had total U.S. economic impacts on the order of $25 billion.⁶

¹ U.S. Centers for Disease Control

² CDC. Surveillance for asthma: United States, 1980-1999. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2002;51(SS01):1-13

³ Economic Impacts of Drought and the Benefits of NOAA's Drought Forecasting Services, NOAA Magazine, September 17, 2002. Website: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/magazine/stories/mag51.htm.

⁴ Economic Impacts of Drought and the Benefits of NOAA's Drought Forecasting Services, NOAA Magazine, September 17, 2002. Website: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/magazine/stories/mag51.htm.

⁵ 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.

⁶ Changnon, Stanley A., ed. El Niño 1997-1998; The Climate Event of the Century, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Benefits of GEOSS in Utah

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