Dates of Images:

Pre-Event: April 2024

Post-Event: 5/18/2024, 5/19/2024, 5/20/2024

Date of Next Image:

Unknown

Summary:

The Black Marble High-Definition (BMHD) images were created by the NASA Black Marble Science team, with directed funding the NASA-Google Partnership program. The images map the impact of extreme heat in Houston, Texas on electric grids. The baseline image is from April 2024, a cloud-free, moon-free composite, and the “after" image is from May 18, 2024 - May 20, 2024. There is a layer to display where clouds are present in the "after" images. This comparison between the images is meant as a visual assessment of outage impacts from the extreme heat to aid various partners who are working to deliver emergency aids to local communities. Power outage maps like these help disaster response efforts in the short-term as well as long-term monitoring during the crucial stages of disaster recovery.

From the BMHD data, zonal statistics were collated with FEMA's National Risk Index (NRI) Social Vulnerability score to identify areas where vulnerable populations were affected by power outages. Higher (red) census tract areas indicate a higher amount of power lost relative to the second date listed. For example, a red polygon in the Baseline (April) - May 18th layer indicates that specific area lost disproportionately more power and is in an area with high social vulnerability risk when comparing the normal power available (baseline) to when the disaster occurred.

Suggested Use:

NOTE: Black Marble HD images are downscaled from NASA’s Black Marble nighttime lights product (VNP46), and as such are a “modelled” or “best guess” estimate of how lights are distributed at a 30m resolution. These images should be used for visualization purposes, not for quantitative analysis.

The image is in a yellow-red color scale. Red indicates more severe impacts. Grey polygons are acquired from cloud cover and represent areas where no data was available on a given day.

Satellite/Sensor:

The primary data source, NASA’s Black Marble nighttime lights product suite (VNP46), utilized to generate this product is derived from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Platform (SNPP) along with high resolution base layers - Landsat derived normalized index products (NDVI and NDWI) and OpenStreetMap (OSM) derived road layer

Resolution:

Scaled resolution of 30 meters

Credits:

NASA Black Marble Science team

FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Team

Please cite the following two references when using this data:

Román MO, Stokes EC, Shrestha R, Wang Z, Schultz L, Carlo EA, Sun Q, Bell J, Molthan A, Kalb V, Ji C. Satellite-based assessment of electricity restoration efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. PloS one. 2019 Jun 28;14(6):e0218883.

Román MO, Wang Z, Sun Q, Kalb V, Miller SD, Molthan A, Schultz L, Bell J, Stokes EC, Pandey B, Seto KC. NASA's Black Marble nighttime lights product suite. Remote Sensing of Environment. 2018 Jun 1;210:113-43.

Point of Contact:

Ranjay Shrestha

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

E-mail: ranjay.m.shrestha@nasa.gov

Additional Links:

NASA’s Black Marble Product Suite

Román, M.O. et al. (2019) Satellite-based assessment of electricity restoration efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. PLoS One, 14 (6).

Román, M.O. et al. (2018) NASA’s Black Marble nighttime lights product suite. Remote Sensing of Environment. 210, 113–143.

FEMA's National Risk Index Map: https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/data-resources#shpDownload

Esri REST Endpoint:

See URL section on right side of page.

WMS Endpoint:

https://maps.disasters.nasa.gov/ags03/services/texas_extremeheat_202405/Relative_Power_Loss_Web_Map/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS

Data Download:

https://maps.disasters.nasa.gov/download/gis_products/event_specific/2024/texas_extremeheat_202405/blackmarble_hd/