Joint ESC/VSC/GMEG Seminar - Asteroid Impact Risk Assessment
Donovan Mathias
NASA - Ames
- Date & Time
- Location
- Building 3, Rambo Auditorium
- Summary
The Asteroid Threat Assessment Project (ATAP) at NASA Ames Research Center has developed an integrated approach, including experimental testing and computational simulations, to characterize the risk associated with Earth impacts. An overview of ATAP activities will be presented followed by a discussion about the use of numerical models to parametrically quantify the ground hazard associated with airburst and surface impacts. We’ll specifically consider modeling the transfer of a meteor’s kinetic energy to the atmosphere, including the propagation of the subsequent overpressure waves to the ground. Additionally, ocean impact simulations will be examined to characterize the initial cavity formation resulting from impact as well as implications on long-range wave propagation. The results from the hazard simulations enable the use of reduced order models in a probabilistic risk assessment. We will discuss how these models are used and cover ensemble risk estimates. Lastly, we will provide an example of how the integrated risk assessment was incorporated into the 2017 NASA Near Earth Object Science Definition Team report.
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