Predicting Malaria Outbreaks With NASA Satellites

Locations in Peru where malaria cases were reported in 2005 The color bar for reported malaria cases (shown as cylinders) from 1 to 100, going from light red to dark red. The LDAS precipitation data in 2005. The color bar for precipitation rate from 0.0 to 0.0042 kilogram in one square meter per second, going from light blue to dark blue. The LDAS data - total soil moisture in 2005. The color bar for total soil moisture from 2.9 to 1000 kg per square meter, going from light green to dark green. The LDAS humidity data in 2005. The color bar for special humidity from 0.0 to 0.023 kilogram per kilogram, going from light blue to purple to dark purple. The LDAS air temperature data in 2005. The color bar for air temperature from 264.93 to 309.25 Kelvin, going from light blue to light brown to dark brown. These are the frames of the background/land cover as the camera zooms in. The layer of reported malaria cases shown as cylinders. These are the frames of the matching mask for Peru as the camera zooms in. The frames of LDAS precipitation layer. The frames of LDAS total soil moisture. The frames of LDAS air temperature. The frames of LDAS humidity. The frames of date in mmddyyyy format. These are the frames of date in week and year format. This format is original in the health-post level dataset. The river mask for the malaria area. Malaria is a major problem in the Amazon where malaria mosquitoes tend to prefer wet, hot areas with more standing water. Seasonal occupational movement along rivers and in forested areas increases transmission and concentrates malaria in specific regions. The objective of Malaria Project, an ongoing study led by William Pan and Ben Zaitchik, is to develop a detection and early warning system for malaria risk in the Amazon. Using data from NASA satellites and a Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS), the scientists hope that their research can help health officials pinpoint where to deploy resources and what resources to deploy during a disease outbreak. By incorporating NASA data such as precipitation, soil moisture, air temperature, and humidity into their new system, scientists are better able to predict where malaria-spreading mosquitoes are breeding. These climate factors in conjunction with a population density and human movement model will help scientists better understand where and when people are at high risk for malaria. The malaria warning system will predict outbreaks and simulate response to help a country's health care system to more strategically determine where to deploy their resources. Visualizations focus on Peru, one of the central areas of malaria transmission in the Amazon. Four LDAS data sets -- precipitation, soil moisture, air temperature, and humidity are illustrated below. Combined with public health data, the animations show how these factors may affect the outbreak and evolvement of the disease. Related pages

Animation of precipitation rates over the Amazon Rain Forest as it pulsates with the diurnal cycle. Notice how during the day precipitation amounts increase and then decrease nightly. Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission has produced its first global map of rainfall and snowfall. The GPM Core Observatory launched one year ago on Feb. 27, 2014 as a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and acts as the standard to unify precipitation measurements from a network of 12 satellites. The result is NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM data product, called IMERG, which combines data from all 12 satellites into a single, seamless map. The map covers more of the globe than any previous precipitation data set and is updated every half hour, allowing scientists to see how rain and snow storms move around nearly the entire planet. As scientists work to understand all the elements of Earth's climate and weather systems, and how they could change in the future, GPM provides a major step forward in providing the scientific community comprehensive and consistent measurements of precipitation. Related pages