FEMA Asteroid Impact Tabletop Exercise Simulations

Journal Article · Tue May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Procedia Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.04.007· OSTI ID:1214699

Boslough, Mark ^[1]; Jennings, Barbara ^[1]; Carvey, Brad ^[2]; Fogleman, William ^[3]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. DrumFire, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
3. Geo-Ratlational Information Technologies (GRIT) inc., Albuqurque, NM (United States)

We describe the computational simulations and damage assessments that we provided in support of a tabletop exercise (TTX) at the request of NASA's Near-Earth Objects Program Office. The overall purpose of the exercise was to assess leadership reactions, information requirements, and emergency management responses to a hypothetical asteroid impact with Earth. The scripted exercise consisted of discovery, tracking, and characterization of a hypothetical asteroid; inclusive of mission planning, mitigation, response, impact to population, infrastructure and GDP, and explicit quantification of uncertainty. Participants at the meeting included representatives of NASA, Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the White House. The exercise took place at FEMA headquarters. Sandia's role was to assist the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in developing the impact scenario, to predict the physical effects of the impact, and to forecast the infrastructure and economic losses. We ran simulations using Sandia's CTH hydrocode to estimate physical effects on the ground, and to produce contour maps indicating damage assessments that could be used as input for the infrastructure and economic models. We used the FASTMap tool to provide estimates of infrastructure damage over the affected area, and the REAcct tool to estimate the potential economic severity expressed as changes to GDP (by nation, region, or sector) due to damage and short-term business interruptions.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1214699
• Journal Information: Procedia Engineering, Vol. 103, Issue C; ISSN 1877-7058
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
Asteroid
impact
airburst
near earth object
infrastructure.