Delivery of Forecasted Atmospheric Ozone and Dust for a Public Health Decision-Support System-Architecture and Functionality

William B. Hudspeth, Jeff A. Cavner, Karl BenedictWilliam B. Hudspeth, Jeff A. Cavner, Karl BenedictEarth Data Analysis CenterEarth Data Analysis CenterUniversity of New MexicoUniversity of New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USAAlbuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Environmental Threats to At-Risk Populations

Environmentally induced health risks to populations with respiratory illnesses are a growing concern globally. Of particular concern are dust

and smoke particles in the atmosphere.

PM2.5

– particles < 2.5 µm diameter

PM10

– particles < 10 µm diameter

Syndromic Surveillance Systems

Many syndromic surveillance systems have been developed in recent years to provide electronic access to information on a variety of diseases and syndromes. A

few have enhanced their tools with mapping and visualization technologies.

•Rapid Syndrome Validation Project (RSVP)

•Syndrome Reporting Information System (SYRIS)

Public Health Tracking in New Mexico

New Mexico's Environmental Public Health Tracking System (EPHTS) is funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as part of the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (EPHTN)

•Improve Health Awareness

•Link Health Effects Data with Levels and Frequency of Environmental Exposure

•Includes links to data from the Statewide Asthma Surveillance System (SASS)

•Includes links to data for other respiratory and cardivascular diseases tracked by the Hospital Inpatient Discharge Database (HIDD)

Project Overview

•NASA funded cooperative project between the University of New Mexico and the University of Arizona

•Add NASA Earth Science Results/Earth Science Modeling Framework (ESR/ESMF) products for atmospheric dust, ozone, and aerosols to improve

forecasting of atmospheric events having public health effects

•Dust forecasts derived from the Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (DREAM)

•Ozone forecasts generated using the Community Multi-scale Air-Quality Modeling System (CMAQ)

Project Goals

•Improve dust model forecasts using DREAM

•Generate ozone forecasts with CMAQ

•Link PM 2.5 and PM 10 air quality data with health surveillance data

•Evaluate utility of linked data for assessing environmental exposures and health outcomes

•Deliver timely dust/aerosol/ozone forecasts to the public health community via data delivery and mapping services

New Mexico Environmental Public Health Tracking System (EPHTS)

•A decision-support system that integrates data from multiple agencies and organizations that monitor public health in New Mexico

•Data, products, and model outputs from these distributed providers are integrated into a standards-based system

•EPHTS enables collection, integration, analysis, and interpretation of data about changing air quality conditions and human health effects

•Expedites the dissemination of data and analytical results to a wide cross-section of users from local to national levels

Dust and Ozone Forecasting

•A significant component of EPHTS is the ability to deliver forecasted dust and ozone concentration to the public health community

•Dust and ozone forecasts are enhanced by the assimilation of NASA Earth Science Results/Earth Science Modeling Framworks (ESR/ESMF) into the

DREAM and CMAQ models

Architecture of the New Mexico EPHTS

Can be described as a state-of-the-art n-tiered architecture of interacting services, each of which provides a specific function

•Public Services

•Application Services

•Data Services

Data Services

•DREAM and CMAQ models generate dust, ozone, and aerosol forecasts

•Data post-processed and archived on the system

•Both raster and numerical data are generated

Application Services

•Raster Analysis Service – extract time-series data from hourly dust records

•Data Retrieval Service – improve ability of user to retrieve raster data

•Data Extraction Service – extraction of values fro specified x-y locations

•OGC WMS Service – retrieve rasters in combination with other data

•Workflow Service – orchestrates the sequence of service calls required to fulfill client requests

Public Services – WMS Client/Mapping Client

The WMS and Mapping Clients allow users to visualize raster images derived from the DREAM/CMAQ system. Images are then made available

to users via OGC (Open Geographic Consortium) Services

•WMS Client serves as an image provider for the Mapping Client

•Mapping client provides routine GIS functions including zoom, pan, and vector overlay

Public Services – Tabular Data Client/Analysis Client

•Presentation of Classified Dust Concentration Values in a Table Format

•Specialized Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) functions allow users to extract and analyze specific characteristics or attributes from raster-formatted

data

•Mean dust concentration by county, census tract or other administrative boundary that coincides with public health analytical divisions

•SOAP requests return data in tabular formats, charts, graphs, or images

Integration of Dust Forecast Results into the New Mexico EPHTS

•Outputs from DREAM and CMAQ models post-processed and stored as rasters in GRASS GIS

•Post-processing aggregates dust concentration values by county and census tract over hourly, daily, and monthly intervals

•Basic descriptive statistics of aggregated dust concentration values calculated and stored in a PostgreSQL Database

•Raster data are accessed via WMS and WCS data requests and formats and delivered to the WMS and Mapping Clients

•Tabular data are accessed via SOAP requests and XML processing

•Specialized services (ex. Time series analysis and plots) delivered via SOAP requests to the Data Retrieval Service

24-hour Mean PM 10 Dust Concentration by County

Dust Forecast Time-Series Service

PM 2.5 PM 10

Acknowledgements

NMEPHTS funded by CDC as part of its Environmental Pblic Health Tracking Network

ENPHASYS project funded by NASA’s Applied Sciences Branch, Science Mission

Directorate