First Mobile NASA App and Quakesim Share Agency's 2012 Software Award

Sept. 20, 2012

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

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

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


RELEASE: 12-318

FIRST MOBILE NASA APP AND QUAKESIM SHARE AGENCY'S 2012 SOFTWARE AWARD



WASHINGTON -- NASA's first mobile application and software that models
the behavior of earthquake faults to improve earthquake forecasting
and our understanding of earthquake processes 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.

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.

QuakeSim, developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 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.

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.

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 NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board,
visit:

http://icb.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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