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Ocean Agency Expands U.S. Tsunami Warning System

Five deep-ocean, tsunami-detection buoys installed in Atlantic Basin

To expand the U.S. tsunami warning system, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has installed five deep-ocean assessment and reporting of tsunami (DART) buoy stations off the U.S. East and Gulf coasts and the Caribbean.

The latest buoy station, off the coast of Louisiana, joins stations off South Carolina, Florida and two off Puerto Rico.

"These buoys are a first line of defense in providing citizens of the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf regions with a comprehensive tsunami warning system," said NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher.

"The DART stations are an advanced technology," he added, that will help protect densely populated tourist destinations in the regions and protect their economic resources.

NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle designed and built the DART system to provide real-time tsunami detection as waves travel across the open ocean.

TSUNAMI DETECTION

The newly installed stations, called DART II, are a more robust design than previously installed stations. DART II stations are equipped with advanced two-way satellite communications that let forecasters receive and retrieve critical data, NOAA said.

The agency expects the network to total 39 DART II buoy stations by 2008 - 32 in the Pacific and seven in the Atlantic Basin.

NOAA received more than $17 million in supplemental funding in fiscal year 2005 and almost $9.7 million in fiscal year 2006 to expand the U.S. tsunami warning system.

Since receiving the funding, NOAA's tsunami warning centers have expanded their services to provide tsunami watches and warnings to the entire U.S. Atlantic Coast, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Eastern Canada.

These regions now can receive tsunami warnings and watches through NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards and the Emergency Alert System, just as they would be notified of tornadoes, flooding or other hazards.

INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL OUTREACH

Internationally, through the U.S. Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System program, U.S. agencies will spend $16.6 million over two years to help develop early warning capabilities for tsunamis and other hazards in the Indian Ocean, and support the International Oceanographic Commission in developing an international warning system for 16 countries.

Until early warning systems are complete for the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, NOAA, along with the Japan Meteorological Agency, is providing interim warning guidance from its Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

Currently, in addition to the five new DART buoys, NOAA has 11 DART buoys in the Pacific Ocean - 10 operated by NOAA, one by Chile - and the agency plans to contribute two DART buoys to the Indian Ocean early warning system.

NOAA has made designs and documentation for the deep-ocean buoys freely available on its Web site to any interested nation or company, and PMEL Director Eddie Bernard helped design a system of 23 deep-ocean buoys that could become one part of a complete Indian Ocean early warning system.

Additional information is available on the U.S. government Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Web site.

TSUNAMI READY

The DART network is just one component of a comprehensive tsunami warning system.

"We have made important strides in enhancing our communication networks so East Coast residents and visitors can receive tsunami watches and warnings," Lautenbacher said.

The work, he said, includes upgrading NOAA's network of tide stations, working to staff the tsunami warning centers around the clock, producing forecast models for at-risk communities, transferring technology from research to operations and providing public education.

NOAA's effort to help communities prepare for tsunami and other weather events, called the TsunamiReady program, is designed to educate local emergency management officials and their constituents and promote a well-designed tsunami emergency response plan for each community.

TsunamiReady promotes tsunami hazard preparedness as a collaboration among federal, state, and local emergency management agencies, and NOAA is working to transfer the program to other nations at risk.

SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS

In President Bush's proposed 2007 budget, the administration is requesting $21 million to strengthen the U.S. tsunami-warning program.

"Maintaining and upgrading the DART network and all components of the warning system is an ongoing effort," Lautenbacher said.

"We are already investigating new technologies to build an all hazards warning capability as part of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems [GEOSS]," he added.

The 61-nation, U.S.-led GEOSS is a system-in-development for monitoring the Earth that seeks to integrate the world's widely distributed Earth-observing networks of surface-based, airborne and space-based environmental monitoring instruments.

Such a system will help mitigate the impact of tsunami and other disasters, forecast weather months in advance and more effectively predict climate change, El Niņo weather patterns, drought, malaria outbreaks and other global changes.

The intergovernmental ad hoc Group on Earth Observations has developed the framework of a 10-year GEOSS implementation plan whose work begins this year.

Source: U.S. Department of State