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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

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University at Albany, State University of New York

Series

2023

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Improving Inferences About Exoplanet Habitability, Risinie D. Perera, Kevin H. Knuth Nov 2023

Improving Inferences About Exoplanet Habitability, Risinie D. Perera, Kevin H. Knuth

Physics Faculty Scholarship

Assessing the habitability of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) is of great importance in deciding which planets warrant further careful study. Planets in the habitable zones of stars like our Sun are sufficiently far away from the star so that the light rays from the star can be assumed to be parallel, leading to straightforward analytic models for stellar illumination of the planet’s surface. However, for planets in the close-in habitable zones of dim red dwarf stars, such as the potentially habitable planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, the analytic illumination models based on the parallel ray approximation …

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Communicating About Extreme Heat: Results From Card Sorting And Think Aloud Interviews With Experts From Differing Domains, Jeannette Sutton, Nicholas Waugh, Savannah Olivas Mar 2023

Communicating About Extreme Heat: Results From Card Sorting And Think Aloud Interviews With Experts From Differing Domains, Jeannette Sutton, Nicholas Waugh, Savannah Olivas

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

Climate trends indicate that extreme heat events are becoming more common and more severe over time, requiring improved strategies to communicate heat risk and protective actions. However, there exists a disconnect in heat-related communication from experts, who commonly include heat related jargon (i.e., technical language), to decision makers and the general public. The use of jargon has been shown to reduce meaningful engagement with and understanding of messages written by experts. Translating technical language into comprehensible messages that encourage decision makers to take action has been identified as a priority to enable impact-based decision support. Knowing what concepts and terms …

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Ember Alerts: Assessing Wireless Emergency Alert (Wea) Messages In Wildfires Using The Warning Response Model, Erica D. Kuligowski, Nicholas A. Waugh, Jeannette Sutton, Thomas J. Cova Jan 2023

Ember Alerts: Assessing Wireless Emergency Alert (Wea) Messages In Wildfires Using The Warning Response Model, Erica D. Kuligowski, Nicholas A. Waugh, Jeannette Sutton, Thomas J. Cova

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

When evacuation is necessary in a wildfire event, affected communities must be alerted and warned of the imminent danger and instructed on what to do to protect themselves. One channel available to message providers in the United States is Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) disseminated via IPAWS. Recent wildfire events have shed light on the need to improve WEA strategies and messages when alerting exposed populations of imminent fire threat. The purpose of this article is to assess how, when and where WEAs have been used in US wildfires; whether they comply with guidance set out by Mileti and Sorensen’s Warning …

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Communicating Hazard Location Through Text And Map In Earthquake Early Warnings: A Mixed Methods Study, Jeannette Sutton, Michele M. Wood, Nicholas A. Waugh, Savanah Crouch Jan 2023

Communicating Hazard Location Through Text And Map In Earthquake Early Warnings: A Mixed Methods Study, Jeannette Sutton, Michele M. Wood, Nicholas A. Waugh, Savanah Crouch

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of presenting hazard location in different formats on key warning message outcomes—understanding, personalizing, believing, deciding, and milling. We conducted two studies using experiment and focus group methods. In the experiment, we compared a standard ShakeAlert earthquake early warning message, which merely implied location, to three enhanced messages that communicated information about the earthquake epicenter via text, map, or a combined text-and-map format. Focus groups explored reactions to warning messages accompanied by different types of maps. Overall, the standard ShakeAlert message was associated with worse message outcomes compared to messages that …

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Public Perceptions Of U.S. Earthquake Early Warning Post-Alert Messages: Findings From Focus Groups And Interviews, Jeannette Sutton, Michele M. Wood, Savanah Crouch, Nicholas A. Waugh Jan 2023

Public Perceptions Of U.S. Earthquake Early Warning Post-Alert Messages: Findings From Focus Groups And Interviews, Jeannette Sutton, Michele M. Wood, Savanah Crouch, Nicholas A. Waugh

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

In May 2020, a false earthquake alert message was sent to the city of Ridgecrest, CA, in the U.S.A., an area that just 10 months prior had experienced a significant series of earthquake events. The false alert was followed by a post-alert message, indicating that the message was cancelled and under investigation. This event, the first of its kind in the U.S.A., provided an opportunity to learn about public perceptions of the post-alert message, including what individuals understood about the threat and their safety, and what actions they should take as a result. We conducted individual interviews with 40 persons …

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You Have To Send The Right Message: Examining The Influence Of Protective Action Guidance On Message Perception Outcomes Across Prior Hazard Warning Experience To Three Hazards, Laura Fischer, David Huntsman, Ginger Orton, Jeannette Sutton Jan 2023

You Have To Send The Right Message: Examining The Influence Of Protective Action Guidance On Message Perception Outcomes Across Prior Hazard Warning Experience To Three Hazards, Laura Fischer, David Huntsman, Ginger Orton, Jeannette Sutton

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

A long-term goal for warning message designers is to determine the most effective type of message that can instruct individuals to act quickly and prevent loss of life and/or injury when faced with an imminent threat. One likely way to increase an individual’s behavioral intent to act when they are faced with risk information is to provide protective action information or guidance. This study investigated participant perceptions (understanding, believing, personalizing, deciding, milling, self-efficacy, and response-efficacy) in response to the National Weather Service’s experimental product Twitter messages for three hazard types (tornado, snow squall, dust storm), with each message varying by …

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