Tsunami Early Warning System: An Indian Ocean Perspective

2010 ◽  
pp. 100-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prasad K. Bhaskaran ◽  
P. C. Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Tsunami Early Warning

scholarly journals The challenge of installing a tsunami early warning system in the vicinity of the Sunda Arc, Indonesia

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Lauterjung ◽  
U. Münch ◽  
A. Rudloff
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Active Continental Margin ◽  
Warning System ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Tsunami Early Warning ◽  
Sunda Arc ◽  
The Indian Ocean

Abstract. Indonesia is located along the most prominent active continental margin in the Indian Ocean, the so-called Sunda Arc and, therefore, is one of the most threatened regions of the world in terms of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. On 26 December 2004 the third largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded (magnitude 9.3, Stein and Okal, 2005) occurred off-shore northern Sumatra and triggered a mega-tsunami affecting the whole Indian Ocean. Almost a quarter of a million people were killed, as the region was not prepared either in terms of early-warning or in terms of disaster response. In order to be able to provide, in future, a fast and reliable warning procedure for the population, Germany, immediately after the catastrophe, offered during the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Hyogo/Japan in January 2005 technical support for the development and installation of a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean in addition to assistance in capacity building in particular for local communities. This offer was accepted by Indonesia but also by other countries like Sri Lanka, the Maldives and some East-African countries. Anyhow the main focus of our activities has been carried out in Indonesia as the main source of tsunami threat for the entire Indian Ocean. Challenging for the technical concept of this warning system are the extremely short warning times for Indonesia, due to its vicinity to the Sunda Arc. For this reason the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) integrates different modern and new scientific monitoring technologies and analysis methods.

scholarly journals Near real-time GPS applications for tsunami early warning systems

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Falck ◽  
M. Ramatschi ◽  
C. Subarya ◽  
M. Bartsch ◽  
A. Merx ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Tide Gauge ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Tsunami Early Warning ◽  
Land Mass

Abstract. GPS (Global Positioning System) technology is widely used for positioning applications. Many of them have high requirements with respect to precision, reliability or fast product delivery, but usually not all at the same time as it is the case for early warning applications. The tasks for the GPS-based components within the GITEWS project (German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System, Rudloff et al., 2009) are to support the determination of sea levels (measured onshore and offshore) and to detect co-seismic land mass displacements with the lowest possible latency (design goal: first reliable results after 5 min). The completed system was designed to fulfil these tasks in near real-time, rather than for scientific research requirements. The obtained data products (movements of GPS antennas) are supporting the warning process in different ways. The measurements from GPS instruments on buoys allow the earliest possible detection or confirmation of tsunami waves on the ocean. Onshore GPS measurements are made collocated with tide gauges or seismological stations and give information about co-seismic land mass movements as recorded, e.g., during the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004 (Subarya et al., 2006). This information is important to separate tsunami-caused sea height movements from apparent sea height changes at tide gauge locations (sensor station movement) and also as additional information about earthquakes' mechanisms, as this is an essential information to predict a tsunami (Sobolev et al., 2007). This article gives an end-to-end overview of the GITEWS GPS-component system, from the GPS sensors (GPS receiver with GPS antenna and auxiliary systems, either onshore or offshore) to the early warning centre displays. We describe how the GPS sensors have been installed, how they are operated and the methods used to collect, transfer and process the GPS data in near real-time. This includes the sensor system design, the communication system layout with real-time data streaming, the data processing strategy and the final products of the GPS-based early warning system components.

scholarly journals GPS water level measurements for Indonesia's Tsunami Early Warning System

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 741-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Schöne ◽  
W. Pandoe ◽  
I. Mudita ◽  
S. Roemer ◽  
J. Illigner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning System ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Tsunami Early Warning ◽  
Tsunami Waves ◽  
Gps Technology ◽  
Water Level Measurements

Abstract. On Boxing Day 2004, a severe tsunami was generated by a strong earthquake in Northern Sumatra causing a large number of casualties. At this time, neither an offshore buoy network was in place to measure tsunami waves, nor a system to disseminate tsunami warnings to local governmental entities. Since then, buoys have been developed by Indonesia and Germany, complemented by NOAA's Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoys, and have been moored offshore Sumatra and Java. The suite of sensors for offshore tsunami detection in Indonesia has been advanced by adding GPS technology for water level measurements. The usage of GPS buoys in tsunami warning systems is a relatively new approach. The concept of the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) (Rudloff et al., 2009) combines GPS technology and ocean bottom pressure (OBP) measurements. Especially for near-field installations where the seismic noise may deteriorate the OBP data, GPS-derived sea level heights provide additional information. The GPS buoy technology is precise enough to detect medium to large tsunamis of amplitudes larger than 10 cm. The analysis presented here suggests that for about 68% of the time, tsunamis larger than 5 cm may be detectable.

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