PlanetSentry

Resources

Disaster Monitoring Resources

Technical documentation, glossaries, and reference materials for natural disaster monitoring and open data access.

Terminology & Definitions

Disaster Terminology Glossary

Comprehensive glossary of natural disaster monitoring terms, magnitude scales, alert levels, and technical definitions used across NASA EONET, USGS, NOAA, GDACS, and other authoritative data sources.

  • Earthquake magnitude scales (Moment Magnitude, Richter)
  • Tsunami warning, watch, and advisory definitions
  • Hurricane category classification (Saffir-Simpson scale)
  • Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)
  • GDACS alert levels and humanitarian impact classification
  • Wildfire monitoring terminology (FRP, containment, MODIS/VIIRS)

Data Sources & APIs

NASA EONET

Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker — NASA's primary catalog of natural events worldwide.

API: https://eonet.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/v3

USGS Earthquake Catalog

Real-time earthquake data with magnitude, depth, location, and shakemap access.

API: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/

GDACS

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System — humanitarian impact assessments.

Website: https://www.gdacs.org/

NOAA National Hurricane Center

Official tropical cyclone tracking and forecast data for Atlantic and Pacific.

Website: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

NASA FIRMS

Fire Information for Resource Management System — near-real-time active fire data from MODIS and VIIRS satellites.

Website: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/

Related Content

All data sources listed are publicly accessible and maintained by government agencies or international organizations. PlanetSentry aggregates and visualizes this data but does not claim ownership of the underlying datasets.