PDC Updates | Jan 22, 2010
Vog Safe Rooms
This graphical map will be used to inform residents of Hawaii’s Big Island of the possible need for vog-safe rooms, and the locations of such facilities. Depending on wind direction and wind speed/strength, just about any area of the island can be threatened by vog.

Recently, the Hawaii legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution No. 10, “Requesting the Adjutant General to identify the location of every public safe-room in Hawaii providing suitable shelter from vog and develop plans to establish such safe rooms in additional areas that need them.” To help citizens identify the facilities closest to their homes and businesses, PDC prepared a map of vog-safe room locations on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Hawaii State Civil Defense (HSCD) Population Protection Planner provided a spreadsheet listing the places—most of them in public schools—where people might seek shelter when necessary. Geospatial Information Analyst Colin Lindeman mapped these sites along with the precise locations of the gas-spewing vents, as provided by Hawaii National Guard’s 93rd Civil Support Team (CST), and delivered it to state and county authorities.

The map includes the major roads connecting the vog-safe room locations around the island. “We were able to quickly support this important request since most of the necessary data were already in our Enterprise Geospatial Database,” Lindeman said. “Updating a few facilities and adding others was easily done, too, using PDC’s software tools and high-resolution imagery.”

Vog has been a problem for the people of the Big Island and sometimes for the entire state of Hawaii for many years. Like hail, rain or any other atmospheric condition, the best defense is simply to limit exposure at all times, and to curtail exposure completely when the condition is extreme. The mapping of vog-safe rooms is a step toward providing public safety on the worst vog days, when authorities and emergency managers determine that sheltering is required.

PDC Response to Kilauea’s Other Dangerous Gas Release

The very nature of Kilauea Volcano’s gaseous-emissions changed radically on March 12, 2008, when Hawaii National Guard’s 93rd Civil Support Team (CST)—on the Big Island for a training exercise—identified the new output from the long-dormant Halema‘uma‘u vent. In addition to the bothersome and potentially dangerous vog, the vent had also become a source of distinctly dangerous sulfur dioxide (SO2). Along with the continuing vog emissions from the Pu‘u O‘o vent, the SO2 was a threat that had to be managed. 93rd CST developed a system for modeling the SO2 plumes right away.

On April 2, 2008, PDC delivered to Hawaii State Civil Defense “NASA graphics of the dangerous sulfur dioxide plume being emitted by” Kilauea. That was just the beginning of PDC’s support for increasing residents’ safety in connection with vog and SO2 emissions. On April 11, a PDC team made up of Disaster Management Applications Analyst Andrea Chatman, Senior Imagery Analyst & Geospatial Database Manager Rich Nezelek and Modeling Analyst Michael Chatman went to the Big Island for field observations and briefings. 93rd CST was producing daily models of the gas plumes at that time. Until then, PDC’s support for activities related to the release of the noxious fumes had been provided by way of HSCD, but following a meeting with Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim and representatives of the CST, PDC was asked to begin providing the daily SO2 plume modeling. An MoU was prepared to allow the safe transfer of data as needed.

During that same week in April, PDC-HSCD Liaison Julie Greenly provided hands on training to personnel of the State Warning Point, HSCD Operations and to HSCD Vice Director Ed Teixeira to ensure that all could access, navigate within and effectively use PDC’s Hawaii (County) Resource Information System for Coastal Hazards (HI RISC) map viewer. PDC also supplied the HI RISC users with system bookmarks created to simplify access to essential GIS layers related to this SO2 release event. Users were also given web links to additional sources of SO2 imagery.

Michael Chatman applied the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) model to visualizing the SO2 plumes being vented from Kilauea. The model results were posted to EMOPS on April 21, as Army 93rd CST transferred plume modeling responsibilities to PDC. This transfer was completed on Friday, April 25, when PDC officially began providing the model to responders and decision makers in Hawaii County. The PDC HPAC modeling team (Michael Chatman, Andrea Chatman, and Pam Cowher) provided daily, 24 hour SO2 plume model products on business days, and 48 hr plume model products for the weekends. PDC Sr. Weather Specialist Glenn James provided HSCD and Hawaii County Civil Defense with daily SO2-related weather reports for the affected areas in Hawaii County.

In July, the plume modeling system was disrupted when essential data were not available. The data were not readily and continuously available for weeks. In late August, Chief Scientist Stan Goosby, Science Advisor Heather Bell, and Michael Chatman discussed a scheme for acquiring a consistent stream of the needed data with Dr. Yi-Leng Chen, a professor in University of Hawaii’s Meteorology Department, School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology. Dr. Chen was able to supply the needed meteorological data, and an MoU was established. That MoU was later renewed to extend its effect through December 2009.

Daily plume models were generated for several more months. In the summer, seeing that the release of SO2 could go on for an unpredictable/interminable long time, and that county and state officials were no longer dependent on models being updated daily, PDC went to an “on call” status for the SO2 plume modeling.

  • Learn more about volcanoes and volcanic gases start on the PDC website.
  • USGS also has an interesting FAQ about volcanoes and air quality.
  • Governor Linda Lingle offers information about vog in Hawaii.
  • A USGS fact sheet explains the volcanic air pollution in Hawaii.
Some links may become inactive over time. If you find a broken or inoperative link to an external resource, you may want to search at that resource for the relevant information. If you find that a link referring to a pdc.org page fails, please inform the PDC Webmaster.