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MITRE developed AlaskAlert to meet the
state's unique needs in communicating with the public across
vast distances in the event of an emergency, whether natural
(wild fires, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves) or manmade. |
AlaskAlert
Darrell Ernst
March 2001
A civil notification system based on GEOcast™ and MITREcast™
technologies
Made up of over half a million square miles, the state of Alaska
faces a significant challenge in providing accurate and timely hazard
and civil notification information to its geographically dispersed
residents. Due to a lack of local broadcasting infrastructure, the
National Warning System and the Emergency Alert System are only
marginally effective. After attending a conference presentation
by MITRE staff a couple of years ago, Alaskan officials asked MITRE
to develop a proposal for using our GEOcast™ technology to
develop a statewide, geographically based hazard and emergency notification
system. The result is the AlaskAlert project, which uses MITREcast™
technology.
MITRE Defense Space Systems Engineer Darrell Ernst began developing
the technology for the system in 1992. Inspired by his son, a soldier
in Desert Storm, Ernst explains the origin of GEOcast. "One
day it hit me—why couldn't we have a scud warning capability
for soldiers in the field? We could use advances in communications
to develop location-specific technology to send them warning messages
and instructions."
From there Darrell and a couple of colleagues began developing
GEOcast. Working with the Army and Department of Defense,
MITRE demonstrated GEOcast at the Joint Warfighter Interoperability
Demonstration in 1995. "What's significant about the GEOcast
technology is that it can broadcast information by layers,"
says Ernst. "It can selectively warn individuals in danger
and give them very specific instructions.
"I first thought of using the GEOcast technology in
a hazard alert system about three years ago as I was driving home
from work," says Ernst. "I heard a radio news report about
the tornado conference going on in Atlanta, and I thought 'why couldn't
we use our communications technology to develop a system that could
warn people in immediate danger?' If the technology was geographically
based, we could pinpoint the areas most in danger and send them
a specific warning and instructions. The next day I proposed my
idea to MITRE's Chief Technology Officer Dave Lehman. Dave said
to run with it. Jim Marshall, Jim Chadwick, and I did just that."
MITREcast is the result of applying GEOcast technology
in a hazard and emergency notification system.
"Working on the GEOcast and MITREcast projects
has been a wonderful experience," says Ernst. "MITRE is
a really strong supporter of staff who want to explore new technologies
and applications. We have a great opportunity to bring new technologies
to the table and use them in innovative ways."
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