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Free, Life-Saving USNG Browser App to Provide Exact Location of 9-1-1 Smartphone Callers During Emergencies; Universal Mapping Grid Also Provides Interoperable Reference Tool for First Responders

911call-thumb-240x180When faced with a major emergency – getting lost in the wilderness, trapped in a collapsed structure, or pinned in a vehicle that has plunged into a canyon – most victims would likely reach for their smartphones and call 9-1-1 for help. The problem is that unlike landlines, it is nearly impossible for Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) to determine the caller’s exact location.

The geo-location problem involving cell phones is a difficult issue to solve in the short-term, since most solutions require changes to the 9-1-1 system and updates to cellphones.  Despite the common belief that automatic tracking apps will resolve this problem, these services can be unreliable and off by miles, as noted in an article “9-1-1 Caller Location Solutions,” published by the US National Grid (USNG) in Florida.Capture

USNG has the ideal solution to ensure smartphone callers can get help “right now, today, this minute” using its national standard coordinate system.
9-1-1 callers can open the USNG mobile applications on their smartphones – either FindMeSAR.com or the original USNGAPP.org – and communicate their grid location to PSAP operators. With FindMeSAR.com, callers can also switch to other coordinate formats, including UTM and Latitude & Longitude, to help first responders locate their position.

These applications may save your life one day – or your loved one – if faced with a major crisis. Read more below to learn how it works or go directly to 9-1-1 Caller Location Solutions.

USNG: THE STANDARD TOOL FOR GROUND SAR

USNG is a universal map index, derived from the military grid system, which provides user-friendly position referencing on gridded paper and digital maps. In 2011, USNG was officially designated as the federal standard geo-referencing system for ground search-and-rescue (SAR) operations.

USNG was fully integrated into Mission Manager with the help of Al Studt, who serves as a Lieutenant with Canaveral Fire Rescue and a member of the Florida Task Force 4 (FL-TF4) Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team.

A renowned authority on the grid, Studt is also a USNG instructor and author. He uses Mission Manager to determine USNG coordinates during training drills and real-life emergency operations, including search-and-rescue operations and natural disasters.

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Over the past few years, Studt and the USNG team have launched a successful grassroots effort to promote the national grid through aggressive social media campaigns, on-site training and classroom presentations. Their goal is to improve interoperability and efficiency among first responders nationwide, and educate the public about its availability to help save lives.

Among his outreach efforts, Studt presented a USNG briefing at the FL-TF4 Annual Meeting held December 2105. The 12-minute presentation is available on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-qduWx45pE.

In addition, the Iowa Task Force 1 (IA-TFI) produced an educational USNG video module as part of its 5-Part Search Video Series video geared to the Iowa’s First Responders.

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HOW TO USE USNG ON SMARTPHONES 

In its blog post 9-1-1 Caller Location Solutions, USNG describes how to use the web-based tools on your smartphone:

OPTION 1:  FindMeSAR.com:  The site opens quickly for new users and once loaded will function without internet connectivity. This is rare for a website to function in a browser without internet, but it does – and that is the advantage to the user.

OPTION 2: USNGAPP.org: This is the original and has been described in this article: 9-1-1 cell phone callers can provide location:

FINDMESAR.COM

Courtesy of MappingSupport.com, FindMeSAR.com will first open onto a blue screen that shows the national standard coordinate system, US National Grid. The caller can read the coordinates and the accuracy value to the PSAP call taker.

The PSAP call taker should be able to plot these coordinates in seconds via their Computer Aided Dispatch software, other vendor software or webtools such as GMap4 or Mission Manager.

Initial display of FindMeSAR.com for location: 17R NM 1749 4748

As the PSAP call taker, at their option, can ask the caller to switch to other coordinate formats if US National Grid is not yet primary within their PSAP.

The options of UTM and Latitude & Longitude follow; all the user has to do is depress the upper left button [Next format]. The color coding is intentional, the PSAP can refer to the screen of their choice by color.

  • The second display screen; UTM
  • The third display screen, Lat/Long in DD.dddddd format
  • The last display screen, Lat/Long in DD-MM.mmm format

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Finally, for this example, where is this location? Using GMap4 and Mission Manager, here are the map plots:

GMap4: https://mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?usng=17R_NM_1749_4748&tilt=off&z=18&t=s

Mission Manager: http://missionmanager.net/Maps.php?location=17R%20NM%2017490%2047480&zoom=15&layer=Google%20Streets&coords=2&grid=true

This is the original USNG app for mobile phones.

This is the original USNG app for mobile phones.

Notes:

  • Smart phones must have GPS ON for FindMeSAR.com or any GPS app to work properly.
  • It is understood that some 9–1–1 callers will be unfamiliar with their phones and/or too stressed and will not be able to complete the opening of any website during the call. However, many callers, especially those not directly involved in the the 9–1–1 call will absolutely be able to do it
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Al Studt conducts a training session on how to use the USNG mobile applications.

 

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See other USNG articles at:

https://medium.com/@USNGFlorida

or on

Twitterhttps://twitter.com/USNGFlorida, including these recent tweets:

Florida Task Force 4 (FL-TF4) Joint USAR Exercise Incorporates U.S. National Grid and Mission Manager Incident Command Software for Team Coordination, Live Tracking and Situational Awareness

It’s as real as it gets: A tornado rips through Lakeland, Fla., leveling a campground, destroying a building and toppling multiple vehicles with “victims” trapped in torn and twisted wreckage. Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams work side-by-side as they come to the aid of the trapped victims, using hydraulic cutters, saws and spreaders to rip through roofs and crushed doors. Meanwhile, helicopters and drones fly overhead to access the damage and pinpoint the location of the victims.

Fortunately for Lakeland, the large-scale disaster was a 24-hour joint exercise designed to put first responders to the test – namely USAR teams from the Florida Task Force 4 (FL-TF4) and the Lakeland Fire Department. Luckily, the victims were role-players and mannequins, and the campground was a paint-ball field.

It was FL-TF4’s annual mobilization exercise, called MOBEX 2015, held October 6 to test the readiness levels of the USAR teams.  The exercise focused on all aspects of the deployment, not just on the skills of individual members and teams but also on the logistics, preparation and planning for a catastrophic event.

USNG MOBEX MAP

Using USNG map layers, Mission Manager displays a wide-area search, or WAS, involving three FL-TF4 squads, K9s and live “victims.” Click for larger screen view.

At the command post, Mission Manager’s web-based incident management system was used to coordinate team assignments, provide status of the search areas, and indicate the locations of the victims using the U.S. National Grid System, or USNG.

USNG: The National Standard for Land SAR Operations
USNG is a nationally consistent geo-referencing tool that provides user-friendly position referencing on gridded digital and/or paper maps with pinpoint accuracy. Derived from the Military Grid Reference System, USNG is an intuitive, alphanumeric system that is used for wide-area searches, but could equally well identify the front or back door of a home or business.

Serving as a standard language of location for Search and Rescue (SAR) personnel and multiple agencies, USNG is federally mandated for land SAR operations to ensure first responders avoid multiple searches of the same area.

This universal map index improves interoperability among first responders at all levels – from federal, state and local government – which is vital during large-scale natural disasters that involve multiple agencies.

The Mission Manager Connection
During MOBEX 2015, the search area boundary was first plotted on Mission Manager’s mapping layers prior to squad deployment. Then, as the wide-area search progressed, squad leaders would radio the truncated USNG coordinates of each victim found, which was then plotted on the Mission Manager map, according to Al Studt, USNG subject-matter expert and FL-TF4 Communications Specialist.

“Everyone who saw Mission Manager in action at the command post was impressed – it is a great tool.  They were particularly impressed by the fact that it was so easy to use,” said Studt, who also uses Mission Manager to teach USNG classes.

Mission Manager provides a team-based operational environment for day-to-day tasks, allowing administrators to easily manage personnel and asset records. It also serves as an online command center during incidents or planned events.

When used in the field, Mission Manager enables incident commanders to create, assign and track team member tasks, and see a real-time picture of every event that transpires on mission maps. Administrators can drop markers onto the map to identify major items, such as the command post, lost subject information, clues and staged equipment.

Administrators can draw lines to represent team assignments or other paths; and also provide area sectioning of custom-drawn areas using polygons, circles and pies. Every change to every field in Mission Manager is automatically logged and can be instantly exported as NIMS ICS compliant reports.

The USNG-Mission Manager Integration
USNG was fully integrated into Mission Manager in 2011 thanks to Studt, who among his other roles, is a Lieutenant with Canaveral Fire Rescue.  The Grid can also be accessed via GPS receivers and smart phone apps.

An initiative of the nonprofit Public XY Mapping Project,  USNG was released as a standard by the Federal Geographic Data Committee in 2001. The Grid was later adopted by FEMA in 2009 due to the confusion among first responders during Hurricane Katrina.

During missions, air assets typically use latitude and longitude coordinates but are required to switch to the Grid when interfacing with USAR. The degree of precision is determined by the number of digits in the coordinates (i.e., 23 67 = 1,000 meters, 23451 67345 = 1 meter.)

CDRP MOBES

UAS imagery assessing structural damages (Courtesy of the Center for Disaster Risk Policy, or CDRP)

Studt noted that USNG’s user-friendly coordinate system allowed for improved efficiency during MOBEX.  “By using USNG, we only had to transmit 8 digits [to indicate a victim’s location] – compared to much longer character strings, nearly 16 digits, that are inherent with Lat/Long,” said Studt.

To learn how to use the Grid – in only 8 minutes – watch the USNG video in the Search Video Series, produced by the Iowa Task Force 1 (IA-TF1). In the Module 5, viewers can learn how to access USNG, read coordinates and find locations on a topographical map. Or visit  USNGCenter.org

To see dramatic drone imagery of the exercise, check out the Center for Disaster Risk Policy’s (CDRP) Facebook Post. CDRP provided the UAS video imagery, geotagged photos, ortho-rectified maps with USNG grids, and live video to the team leaders and planners.

For more details on MOBEX 2015, see The Ledger newspaper article by Kaitlyn Pearson, who reported live from the scene via Twitter.  

ABOUT MISSION MANAGER
Mission Manager provides cloud-based software designed to help save lives and property by enabling first responders to operate more efficiently and effectively. Mission Manager’s team member and asset management capabilities, combined with its calendar and communication functions, allows users to enhance team readiness through optimized training and seamlessly integrate mission-specific operations during real-time events. Over the past three years, Mission Manager has supported approximately 6,000 actual missions ranging from single-person rescues to large public events and full-scale natural disaster response. Mission Manager is currently used in all 50 U.S. states, and on every continent except Antarctica. Truly a global tool, Mission Manager is available in 80 languages. To learn more, visit www.missionmanager.com

 

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Iowa Task Force 1 Training Video Series Highlights US National Grid as the Standard Geo-Referencing System for Land-Based SAR; Also References Mission Manager as a Tool to Access the Grid

What if your team needs to find a lost person in a remote area where there are no roads and markers?  What if you had to find your way in a city where all the street signs have been destroyed by a tornado or submerged by a flood? Do you know how to find a specific location?

According to a new Search Video Series, produced by the Iowa Task Force 1 (IA-TF1), the U.S. National Grid (USNG) system provides a standard language of location for search and rescue (SAR) personnel and multiple agencies. USNG is featured in Module 5 of the five-part video series, tasked by Iowa Homeland Security, which covers the basics of finding lost and missing persons.

Fully integrated in Mission Manager, USNG is a nationally consistent grid reference system that is seamless across jurisdictional boundaries. The intuitive alphanumeric system helps first responders pinpoint the location of missing persons when weather, distance or natural disasters eliminate the presence of typical location markers.

In the 8-minute module, viewers can learn how to access USNG, read coordinates and find locations on a topographical map. Viewers will also learn the importance of using a standard geo-referencing system, and discover why USNG has been adopted by the federal and state SAR units across the country.

As noted in the video, USNG ensures that first responders are using the same system of coordinates so they avoid multiple searches of the same area, resulting in more efficiency and successful operations.

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Derived from the Military Grid Referencing System, USNG provides user-friendly position referencing on gridded paper and digital maps.  It is used for both wide area searches as well as small areas with a pinpoint accuracy.

The degree of precision is determined by the number of digits in the coordinates (i.e., 23 67 = 1000 meters, 23451 67345 = 1 meter). The Grid can be accessed via GPS receivers, smart phones apps and web-based map portals, such as the mapping layers within Mission Manager.

As a universal map index, USNG improves interoperability among first responders at all levels – from federal, state and local government. Having a standard geo-referencing system is vital, particularly during large-scale natural disasters that involve multiple agencies.

The USNG is an initiative of the Public XY Mapping Project,  a not-for-profit organization that brought its findings to Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) in 1998. By 2001, FGDC released USNG as a standard. First adopted by several states, USNG was later adopted by FEMA in 2009 due to the Hurricane Katrina confusion among first responders.

In 2011, USNG was adopted by the National Search and Rescue Committee as the federal standard system for all ground-based SAR. As noted in the IA-TF1 Search Video, air assets typically use latitude and longitude coordinates, but shall switch to USNG when interfacing with land SAR.

ACCESSING THE GRID WITH MISSION MANAGER 

Mission Manager was integrated with USNG in 2011 thanks to Al Studt, who among other roles, is a Lieutenant with Canaveral Fire Rescue and serves on the Florida Task Force #4 Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team.

USNG mapsA renowned authority on the grid, Studt is also a USNG instructor and writes a number of articles on its applications. “I always use Mission Manager when I teach National Grid classes,” he said.

In the real-world, Studt has used Mission Manager to determine USNG coordinates during training and to prepare for emergency operations. It is also used by industry to geo-locate assets such as manholes, transformers, light poles, hazmat locations and more.

To learn more about the U.S. National Grid, please visit http://usngcenter.org/ or https://www.fgdc.gov/usng/how-to-read-usng

 

 

 

 

 

 

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