Quakesim and NASA Mobile App Win NASA Software Award

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Rachel Hoover 650-604-4789
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
rachel.hoover@nasa.gov

Sonja Alexander 202-358-1761
NASA Headquarters, Washington
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-296 Sept. 20, 2012

QuakeSim and NASA Mobile App Win NASA Software Award

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-296&cid=release_2012-296

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA software that models the behavior of earthquake faults to improve
earthquake forecasting and our understanding of earthquake processes, and NASA's first mobile
application are co-winners of NASA's 2012 Software of the Year Award. The award recognizes
innovative software technologies that significantly improve the agency's exploration of space and
maximize scientific discovery on Earth.

QuakeSim, developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is a comprehensive,
state-of-the-art software tool for simulating and understanding earthquake fault processes and
improving earthquake forecasting. Initiated in 2002, QuakeSim uses NASA remote sensing and other
earthquake-related data to simulate and model the behavior of faults in 3-D both individually and as
part of complex, interacting systems. This provides long-term histories of fault behavior that can be
used for statistical evaluation. QuakeSim also is used to identify regions of increased earthquake
probabilities called hotspots.

Studies have shown QuakeSim to be the most accurate tool of its kind for intermediate earthquake
forecasting and detecting the subtle, transient deformation in Earth's crust that precedes and follows
earthquakes. Its varied applications include scientific studies, developing earthquake hazard maps
that can be used for targeted retrofitting of earthquake-vulnerable structures, providing input for
damage and loss estimates after earthquakes, guiding disaster response efforts, and studying fluid
changes in reservoirs, among others.

QuakeSim provides model and analysis tools, computational infrastructure, access to data and an
interface for understanding the complete cycle of earthquakes. The software assimilates data of
crustal deformation that leads to and follows earthquakes, together with seismicity data of
earthquakes and geologic data. QuakeSim's integrated, map-based interfaces and applications make
an unprecedented amount of complex geophysical data from the ground, air and space available and
accessible to a broad range of scientists and end users, including emergency responders, commercial
disaster companies, the insurance industry and civil engineers. The software allows them to explore
and analyze observations, model earthquake processes and analyze patterns to focus attention and
identify significant and/or subtle features in the data.

QuakeSim has had a number of notable accomplishments to date. It produced the first readily
accessible set of digital fault models of California. It was used to identify regions in extreme southern
California at risk for earthquakes, guiding the collection of data by NASA's Uninhabited Aerial
Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) prior to a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Baja, Mexico
in 2010, which led to the first-ever airborne radar images of deformation in Earth's surface caused by
a major earthquake. It helped define NASA's planned synthetic aperture radar satellite mission. It was
used to rule out tectonic deformation of Earth's surface as a factor when a spate of water pipe breaks
afflicted Los Angeles in 2009. The software also was used in several recent government earthquake
response exercises, including the 2008 California ShakeOut, 2011 National Level Exercise and the 2012 Golden Guardian Exercise. QuakeSim approaches are being adopted by numerous organizations, including the Southern California Earthquake Center, United States Geological Survey
and the California Geological Survey.

The multidisciplinary QuakeSim team includes principal investigator Andrea Donnellan, Jay Parker,
Robert Granat, Charles Norton and Greg Lyzenga of JPL; Geoffrey Fox and Marlon Pierce of Indiana
University, Bloomington; John Rundle of the University of California, Davis; Dennis McLeod of the
University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Lisa Grant Ludwig of the University of
California, Irvine.

Software engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., developed the NASA
App for mobile platforms including the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android phones and tablets. The NASA App currently has more than 9.6 million user installations and receives more than three million hits per day on average.

The NASA App gathers the agency's online content, breaking news, image and video collections,
news and image feeds, social media accounts, and more in one easy-to-use location that aids public
access to science, technology and engineering discoveries. The app's creators are program manager
Jerry Colen, software engineer John Freitas and new media specialist Charles Du. A NASA software advisory panel reviews Software of the Year entries and recommends winners to NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board for confirmation. Both Ames and JPL have won
individually or shared the award several times since it was initiated in 1994.

For more information about QuakeSim, visit: http://www.quakesim.org . For more information about
NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board, visit: http://icb.nasa.gov . For more information about
NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

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