Situational Awareness Information Research Articles

Space, time, and situational awareness in natural hazards: a case study of Hurricane Sandy with social media data

ABSTRACTVarious methods have been developed to investigate the geospatial information, temporal component, and message content in disaster-related social media data to enrich human-centric information for situational awareness. However, few studies have simultaneously analyzed these three dimensions (i.e. space, time, and content). With an attempt to bring a space–time perspective into situational awareness, this study develops a novel approach to integrate space, time, and content dimensions in social media data and enable a space–time analysis of detailed social responses to a natural disaster. Using Markov transition probability matrix and location quotient, we analyzed the Hurricane Sandy tweets in New York City and explored how people’s conversational topics changed across space and over time. Our approach offers potential to facilitate efficient policy/decision-making and rapid response in mitigations of damages caused by natural disasters.

Strategic Implications of the Proliferation of Space Situational Awareness Technology and Information: Lessons Learned from the Remote Sensing Sector

Space situational awareness (SSA) refers to the ability to monitor and understand the state of the space environment, including the ability to track, understand, and predict the location of human-generated and natural objects in orbit around the Earth. This capability is a critical element in attributing and deterring attacks against space assets and in avoiding unintentional collisions. Historically, the United States Department of Defense has operated the most extensive SSA system in the world. Although, in recent years, it has shared data with commercial and foreign users on an ad hoc basis to help avoid collisions, access to the full database is highly restricted. Other nations, including Russia and Europe, have begun to develop or expand independent SSA systems. A number of commercial entities have also begun operating in this area, selling or planning to sell SSA services to satellite operators and governments. There are concerns in the United States about whether this proliferation of SSA technology and information will adversely affect national security, and questions about how the United States should respond to this situation. This article uses the example of remote sensing satellite technology and information, which experienced a similar transition from U.S. and Soviet dominance to participation by a wider range of nations and commercial entities, to identify the key strategic risks and opportunities posed by this trend. I discuss the extent to which these strategic risks and opportunities apply to the proliferation of SSA technology and information, finding that while the same strategic concerns are relevant in this case, typically the risks are lower. There are significant opportunities for the United States to benefit from this proliferation of technology. The article discusses the implications of these findings and offers recommendations that will allow the United States to further decrease the strategic risks associated with this trend, while increasing the benefits.

EpiCore: Crowdsourcing Health Professionals to Verify Disease Outbreaks

IntroductionEpiCore draws on the knowledge of a global community of human,animal, and environmental health professionals to verify informationon disease outbreaks in their geographic regions. By using innovativesurveillance techniques and crowdsourcing these experts, EpiCoreenables faster global outbreak detection, verification, and reporting.MethodsThrough a secure online platform, members are able to easily andquickly provide local information to expedite outbreak verification.EpiCore volunteer applications are vetted to ensure that they possessthe public health and epidemiologic expertise necessary to contributeto the platform.ResultsEpiCore currently has over 1600 members that span 135 countries.During the first 8 months of EpiCore’s launch, 172 requests forinformation to volunteers have been posted with an average responserate of over 80%.ConclusionsWith its geographical distribution of members and high responserate, EpiCore is poised to enable the world to verify potential outbreaksignals faster. By improving situational awareness, de-escalatingrumors or false information, and corroborating using other existingsources, EpiCore is able to reduce the signal to noise ratio in diseasesurveillance. Hence, by detecting and verifying outbreaks faster,health officials can generate early responses that can curb epidemicsand save lives.

Evaluation of Syndromic Surveillance Data Streams in Animal Health

ObjectiveTo implement a systematic and uniform approach to evaluatingdata sources for syndromic surveillance within the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant HealthInspection Services (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS) group.IntroductionUSDA-APHIS-VS utilizes several continuous data streams toincrease our knowledge of animal health and provide situationalawareness of emerging animal health issues. In addition, USDA-APHIS-VS often conducts pilot projects to see if regular data accessand analysis are feasible, and if so, if the information generated isuseful. Syndromic surveillance was developed for three goals: asyndromic monitoring system to identify new diseases, as an emergingdisease early warning system, and to provide situational awarenessof animal health status. Current efforts focus on monitoring diversedata, such as laboratory accessions or poison center calls, groupedinto syndromic or other health indicator categories, and are notintended to identify specific pre-determined diseases or pathogens.It is essential to regularly evaluate and re-evaluate the effectiveness ofour surveillance program. However, there are difficulties when usingtraditional surveillance evaluation methods, since the objectives andoutcomes of monitoring novel data streams from pilot projects arenot easily measurable. An additional challenge in the evaluation ofthese data streams is the identification of a method that can adapt tovarious context and inputs to make objective decisions. Until recently,assessment efforts have looked at the feasibility of regular analysisand reporting, but not at the utility of the information generated, northe plausibility and sustainability of longer term or expanded efforts.MethodsMethods for surveillance evaluation, syndromic surveillanceevaluation, and specifically for animal health syndromic surveillanceevaluation were researched via a literature review, exploration ofmethods used in-house on traditional surveillance systems, andthrough development over time of criteria that were seen as key tothe development of functioning, sustainable systems focusing onanimal health syndromic surveillance. Several methods were adaptedto create an approach that could organize information in a logicalmanner, clarify objectives, and make qualitative value assessmentsin situations where the quantitative aspects of costs and benefits werenot always straight forward. More than 25 articles were reviewed todetermine the best method of evaluation.ResultsThe RISKSUR Evaluation Support Tool (EVA) provided themajority of the methodology for the evaluations of our data sources.The EVA tool allows for an integrated approach for evaluation, andflexible methods to measure effectiveness and benefits of various datastreams. The most useful and common factors found to evaluate pilotdata sources of interest were how well the information generated bythe data streams could provide early detection of animal health events,and how well and how often situational awareness information onanimal health was generated. The EVA tool also helps identify andorganize criteria that are used to assess the objectives, and assignvalue.ConclusionsThe regular evaluation of syndromic surveillance data streamsin animal health is necessary to make best use of resources andmaximize benefits of data stream use. It is also useful to conductregular interim assessments on data streams in pilot phase to becertain key information for a final evaluation will be generated duringthe project. The RISKSUR EVA tool was found to be very flexibleand useful for allowing estimates of value to be made, even whenevaluating systems that do not have very specific, quantitativelymeasurable objectives. This tool provides flexibility in the selectionof attributes for evaluation, making it particularly useful whenexamining pilot project data streams. In combination with additionalreview methodologies from the literature review, a systematic anduniform approach to data stream evaluation was identified for futureuse.

Evaluation of Real-Time Mortality Surveillance Based on Media Reports.

We evaluated the usefulness and accuracy of media-reported data for active disaster-related mortality surveillance. From October 29 through November 5, 2012, epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracked online media reports for Hurricane Sandy-related deaths by use of a keyword search. To evaluate the media-reported data, vital statistics records of Sandy-related deaths were compared to corresponding media-reported deaths and assessed for percentage match. Sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), and timeliness of the media reports for detecting Sandy-related deaths were calculated. Ninety-nine media-reported deaths were identified and compared with the 90 vital statistics death records sent to the CDC by New York City (NYC) and the 5 states that agreed to participate in this study. Seventy-five (76%) of the media reports matched with vital statistics records. Only NYC was able to actively track Sandy-related deaths during the event. Moderate sensitivity (83%) and PPV (83%) were calculated for the matching media-reported deaths for NYC. During Hurricane Sandy, the media-reported information was moderately sensitive, and percentage match with vital statistics records was also moderate. The results indicate that online media-reported deaths can be useful as a supplemental source of information for situational awareness and immediate public health decision-making during the initial response stage of a disaster. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:460-466).

Designing a Situational Awareness Information Display: Adopting an Affordance-Based Framework to Amplify User Experience in Environmental Interaction Design

User experience remains a crucial consideration when assessing the successfulness of information visualization systems. The theory of affordances provides a robust framework for user experience design. In this article, we demonstrate a design case that employs an affordance-based framework and evaluate the information visualization display design. SolarWheels is an interactive information visualization designed for large display walls in computer network control rooms to help cybersecurity analysts become aware of network status and emerging issues. Given the critical nature of this context, the status and performance of a computer network must be precisely monitored and remedied in real time. In this study, we consider various aspects of affordances in order to amplify the user experience via visualization and interaction design. SolarWheels visualizes the multilayer multidimensional computer network issues with a series of integrated circular visualizations inspired by the metaphor of the solar system. To amplify user interaction and experience, the system provides a three-zone physical interaction that allows multiple users to interact with the system. Users can read details at different levels depending on their distance from the display. An expert evaluation study, based on a four-layer affordance framework, was conducted to assess and improve the interactive visualization design.

Demonstration of a GOES-R Satellite Convective Toolkit to “Bridge the Gap” between Severe Weather Watches and Warnings: An Example from the 20 May 2013 Moore, Oklahoma, Tornado Outbreak

Abstract With the launch of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite–R (GOES-R) series in 2016, there will be continuity of observations for the current GOES system operating over the Western Hemisphere. The GOES-R Proving Ground was established in 2008 to help prepare satellite user communities for the enhanced capabilities of GOES-R, including new instruments, imagery, and products that will have increased spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution. This is accomplished through demonstration and evaluation of proxy products that use current GOES data, higher-resolution data provided by polar-orbiting satellites, and model-derived synthetic satellite imagery. The GOES-R demonstration products presented here, made available to forecasters in near–real time (within 20 min) via the GOES-R Proving Ground, include the 0–9-h NearCast model, 0–1-h convective initiation probabilities, convective cloud-top cooling, overshooting top detection, and a pseudo–Geostationary Lightning Mapper total lightning tendency diagnostic. These products are designed to assist in identifying areas of increasing convective instability, pre-radar echo cumulus cloud growth preceding thunderstorm formation, storm updraft intensity, and potential storm severity derived from lightning trends. In turn, they provide the warning forecaster with improved situational awareness and short-term predictive information that enhance their ability to monitor atmospheric conditions preceding and associated with the development of deep convection, a time period that typically occurs between the issuance of National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Prediction Center convective watches and convective storm warnings issued by NWS forecast offices. This paper will focus on how this GOES-R satellite convective toolkit could have been used by warning forecasters to enhance near-storm environment analysis and the warning-decision-making process prior to and during the 20 May 2013 Moore, Oklahoma, tornado event.

Processing Social Media Messages in Mass Emergency

Social media platforms provide active communication channels during mass convergence and emergency events such as disasters caused by natural hazards. As a result, first responders, decision makers, and the public can use this information to gain insight into the situation as it unfolds. In particular, many social media messages communicated during emergencies convey timely, actionable information. Processing social media messages to obtain such information, however, involves solving multiple challenges including: parsing brief and informal messages, handling information overload, and prioritizing different types of information found in messages. These challenges can be mapped to classical information processing operations such as filtering, classifying, ranking, aggregating, extracting, and summarizing. We survey the state of the art regarding computational methods to process social media messages and highlight both their contributions and shortcomings. In addition, we examine their particularities, and methodically examine a series of key subproblems ranging from the detection of events to the creation of actionable and useful summaries. Research thus far has, to a large extent, produced methods to extract situational awareness information from social media. In this survey, we cover these various approaches, and highlight their benefits and shortcomings. We conclude with research challenges that go beyond situational awareness, and begin to look at supporting decision making and coordinating emergency-response actions.

Visualizing web server attacks: patterns in PHPIDS logs‡

AbstractThe prevalence and severity of application‐layer vulnerabilities increase dramatically their corresponding attacks. In this paper, we present an extension to PHPIDS, an open source intrusion detection and prevention system for PHP‐based web applications, to visualize its security log. Our usage of security data visualization is motivated by the fact that most security defense systems are mainly based on text‐based logs for recording security‐related events, which are difficult to analyze and correlate. The proposed extension analyzes PHPIDS logs, correlates these logs with the corresponding web server logs, and plots the security‐related events. We use a set of tightly coupled visual representations of hypertext transfer protocol server requests containing known and suspicious malicious content, to provide system administrators and security analysts with fine‐grained visual‐based querying capabilities. We present multiple case studies to demonstrate the ability of our PHPIDS visualization extension to support security analysts with analytic reasoning and decision making in response to ongoing web server attacks. Experimenting the proposed PHPIDS visualization extension on real‐world datasets shows promise for providing complementary information for effective situational awareness. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tactile Cues in Continuous Operations: A Preliminary Study

Research has shown that tactile displays are an effective tool for augmenting spatial orientation and situation awareness information provided to aircraft operators. The tactile situation awareness system (TSAS) has been shown to improve flight performance in conditions of degraded visual environments and to safely maintain performance during hover over moving targets. The potential for the user to adapt and habituate to the stimulus of tactile display systems has not yet been investigated. Four UH-60 current, rated aviators (all male) participated in the pilot study. Subjects completed four consecutive iterations of a 3-h flight profile consisting of 10 maneuvers, totaling 12 h of continuous flight. Flight performance, tactor information, responses to a discomfort questionnaire, and ratings of fatigue symptoms were recorded. The independent variable in all analyses was session (four levels). The results showed that performance per maneuver and proportion of stimulus cues (measure of response to cues) per maneuver were consistent across sessions using independent-samples Kruskal-Wallis tests. The findings of this preliminary assessment support the use of tactile displays (consistent with parameters of TSAS) in continuous operations since performance and proportion of stimulus cues presented was consistent over a period of 12 h. In conclusion, the system will require further experimental testing, but these preliminary findings do not suggest performance or response to be affected by any adaptation or habituation to the stimulus.

Harness Human Sensor Networks for Situational Awareness in Disaster Reliefs: A Survey

Complete, accurate, and up-to-the-minute situational awareness can help disaster relief organizations stabilize the dangers and prevent further losses. Social media (SM) users can be regarded as human sensors since they are analogous to the response of physical sensors to stimuli. Human sensor network (HSN) provides a way to capture situational awareness information coming directly from the grassroots observers in the disasters. The disaster relief organizations can utilize the HSN data to gain the real-time live situations. It saves time and money. This paper surveys on the works of viewing SM as HSNs and extract the situational awareness information from HSN in disaster reliefs. It is found that HSN data, used together with other scientific data, can contribute to better situational awareness in the disaster reliefs.

The Black Canyon Forecast Station: Experiences And Lessons Learned

This presentation reviews the experiences of a meteorology-inspired infectious disease forecast station operating within a rural community. The forecast station promoted routine communication of a broader array of infectious disease activity than that monitored by public health; facilitated proactive, cost effective healthcare; and enabled recognition of unusual, disruptive infectious activity with enough time to enable mitigation of clinical, infrastructure, and financial impact to the community. Routine communication of comprehensive infectious disease forecast and situational awareness information promoted community adaptive fitness to a wide variety of infectious hazards.

Effects of display mode and input method for handheld control of micro aerial vehicles for a reconnaissance mission

Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are small lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles used by dismounted soldiers for aerial reconnaissance and acquiring information for local situation awareness. MAVs require a portable handheld ground control station (GCS) that allows the operator to control and monitor the flight of the MAV. This paper investigated two methods of presenting map and sensor information, either simultaneously on one display or separately on two displays, requiring operator navigation. In addition, two input devices are evaluated: a touch screen display with a stylus versus a joystick with an OK button. The findings suggest that MAV GCSs that use touch screen inputs and simultaneous presentation of map and sensor information will result in better operator performance and reduced operator workload.

Aircraft Rerouting due to Abrupt Facility Outages

Abrupt airport outages resulting from terrorism, natural disasters, and incidents can cause reroutes and fuel-critical situations for flights. Although aircraft carry reserve fuel for holding and diversions, poor situational awareness and incomplete information about conditions may cause disordered reroutes. In this paper a deterministic routing model for airport outages that assigns flights an arrival time at a diversion airport is developed. The model includes a parameter for decision time, allowing one to investigate the value of faster response with advanced technologies. The model minimizes flight time after the disaster to ensure that flights avoid fuel emergencies. Model formulations include an unconstrained allocation of flights to diversion airports and a constrained allocation of flights according to routing rules; this formulation is suboptimal but provides a powerful tool because of its potential ease of implementation. The models are used to determine how coordinated traffic flow management actions could have diverted flights and reduced fuel-critical situations immediately following the destructive 2011 Tωhoku earthquake. It is found that under reasonable assumptions about diversion airports and capacities, all flights can be accommodated without reaching a fuel-critical state for a decision occurring 20 min after the disaster. A longer diversion decision-making process results in some flights reaching emergency conditions, requiring the use of other, less preferred diversion airports and expedited handling procedures. The more constrained model requires faster response for full accommodation of flights.

Link-16에서 이미지 전송을 위한 신뢰성 기반의 동적 TDMA 기법과 새로운 패킹 방법

Link-16은 가장 널리 사용 중인 전술데이터링크로써 TDMA(Time Division Multiple Access)를 기반으로 동작한다. Link-16은 안정적이지만 전송 속도가 매우 낮아 전술 메시지, 음성 등 작은 사이즈의 데이터 전송을 지원한다. 그러나 최근 효과중심작전(EBO: Effect-Based Operation)에 대한 관심이 증가하면서, Link-16을 통해 이미지와 같은 상황 인식 정보를 전송하려는 동향이 있다. 이미지는 기존 메시지에 비해 크기가 매우 크기 때문에 Link-16의 Static TDMA가 아닌 별도의 TDMA 스케줄링이 필요하다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 Link-16의 MAC을 진화시킨 Link-16K를 제안하였다. Link-16K는 Link-16과 호환성을 유지한다. 그리고 이미지 전송을 효과적으로 지원하기 위해 DTDMA(Dynamic TDMA), 새로운 재전송 방법, 새로운 패킹 방법을 포함한다. 제안하는 아이디어의 시뮬레이션 결과를 통해 이미지 전송 시간이 단축되었고, 채널 효율성이 높아졌음을 확인하였다. Link-16 is a widely used TDL (Tactical Data Link) which uses TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Link-16 is a very low rate system, so it supports small size of data like tactical message and voice. However, there are related works to transmit situation awareness information like image due to the increasing interest about EBO(Effect-Based Operation), recently. Special TDMA scheduling is needed not static TDMA of Link-16 for image transmission because image data has much larger size than the existing tactical data. In this paper, we proposed Link-16K which enhances the Link-16 MAC. The proposed Link-16K is compatible with Link-16, and includes dynamic TDMA, new packing method, and an efficient retransmission scheme for image transmission effectively. We can see that image transmission delay is reduced and channel utilization is increased through simulation results of proposed idea.

Using Social Media to Enhance Emergency Situation Awareness

The described system uses natural language processing and data mining techniques to extract situation awareness information from Twitter messages generated during various disasters and crises.

Effect of Novel Adaptive Displays on Pilot Performance and Workload

The effect of adaptive display on pilot performance was assessed using objective and subjective measures from a sequence of 2 experiments. Combat aircraft advances have led to dramatic increases in the operational tempo facing the pilot, increasing the likelihood for situation awareness (SA) failures, biases, and information overload. Prior research suggests that adaptive interface might help to address this issue. We designed and evaluated 2 interfaces targeted at problem areas for pilots: a weapons employment zone (WEZ) display designed to support awareness of combat geometry, and an adaptive border display (ABD) designed to warn pilots of impending border infractions breaking rules of engagement. Two experiments were conducted under various levels of scenario complexities to test the ability of these displays to improve SA, reduce workload, and improve objective performance in a population of licensed civilian pilots. Study 1 results showed that the WEZ display significantly improved both performance and SA, and reduced workload. However, there were no significant effects of the ABD. In the second study, we used substantially more complex scenarios to investigate the effect of the ABD. Results showed that in these situations, the ABD had a significant effect on improving pilot performance. The results demonstrate the value of adaptive visualizations that highlight key aspects of the environment that impact performance. Although the results have verified the benefits of adaptive displays, more sensitive performance measures and diverse test pilots are suggested in the future to provide more confidence in applying these findings. Potential application of this research includes modern aircraft cockpit interface design under complex combat scenarios.

Video: Real-time situational awareness information for first responders

Video: Real-time situational awareness information for first responders

생존체계 위협조우 상황인지를 위한 복합/다중 위협상황 Emulation 연구

무기체계의 현대화 및 복잡화에 따라 현대전 상황에서의 플랫폼 및 운용자에 대한 생존성 확보를 필요로 하게 되었다. 현대 전장의 복합 및 다중 위협상황 무기체계에 대응하기 위하여 다수의 무기체계 플랫폼에서 생존체계를 함께 탑재하게 된다. 생존체계는 무기체계 플랫폼을 위협하는 위협들을 탐지/식별하며 효율적인 대응을 통하여 운용자로 하여금 정확한 상황인지를 가능하게 하고 플랫폼의 생존 능력을 향상시킨다. 생존체계가 보유하여야 할 중요 성능 인자는 복합 및 다중 위협에 대한 처리를 통하여 생존성을 확보하는 것이다. 이에 본 논문에서는 레이다, 레이저, 미사일 단일 위협상황을 조합한 복합 위협상황을 다룸으로 하여 생존체계가 보유하여야 하는 위협통합 알고리즘을 제시하고, 복합 위협상황을 Emulation하는 시스템을 실험실 환경에서 구현하여 위협통합 알고리즘에 대한 성능을 검증하였다. 이를 통해 생존체계가 플랫폼 탑재 이전에 성능 및 신뢰성을 확보할 수 있는 방안에 대하여 제시한다. As the substantial increase in battlefield density, multiple and complex weapon systems, Ensuring the Survivability of the platform has been emphasized. Most of platforms have equipped with ASE (Aircraft Survivability Equipment) system in order to protect the platform and operator against at modernized hostile weapon. ASE system enhance the survivability of the platform through providing accurate situation awareness information by detecting and countermeasuring hostile threats. One of Key factor of the AE system performance is handling multiple and complex threats. In this study, it describes the fact that the performance of ASE system with proposed threat integration algorithm is verified in the developed threat emulation system and also, suggests system verification method before deployment by dealing with complex threat situation.

Automatic Face Annotation in Personal Photo Collections Using Context-Based Unsupervised Clustering and Face Information Fusion

In this paper, a novel face annotation framework is proposed that systematically leverages context information such as situation awareness information with current face recognition (FR) solutions. In particular, unsupervised situation and subject clustering techniques have been developed that are aided by context information. Situation clustering groups together photos that are similar in terms of capture time and visual content, allowing for the reliable use of visual context information during subject clustering. The aim of subject clustering is to merge multiple face images that belong to the same individual. To take advantage of the availability of multiple face images for a particular individual, we propose effective FR methods that are based on face information fusion strategies. The performance of the proposed annotation method has been evaluated using a variety of photo sets. The photo sets were constructed using 1385 photos from the MPEG-7 Visual Core Experiment 3 (VCE-3) data set and approximately 20000 photos collected from well-known photo-sharing websites. The reported experimental results show that the proposed face annotation method significantly outperforms traditional face annotation solutions at no additional computational cost, with accuracy gains of up to 25% for particular cases.