Second U.S. Tsunami-Detection System To Launch in Indian Ocean
18 September 2007
U.S.-Indonesia agreement targets ocean climate science, observations
Washington -- A second tsunami-detection system for the Indian Ocean will launch from Jakarta, Indonesia, September 19, part of the $1 billion U.S. recovery, restoration and technical contribution to the region after the 9.1-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated the area in 2004.
The first device, called a deep-ocean assessment and reporting of tsunami (DART) system, launched from Phuket, Thailand, in December 2005 and was placed on the seafloor at 9 degrees north, 89 degrees east, halfway between Thailand and Sri Lanka. (See related article.)
Officials from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are visiting Indonesia to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with their counterparts from the archipelago nation’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.
The agreement, signed September 18 (local time), focuses on cooperation in ocean and coastal observations and observing systems, marine and coastal hazard mitigation and ocean climate research.
“Indonesia is an emerging economy,” Richard Spinrad, NOAA assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research, told USINFO, “and it’s a good time for us in the United States to do technology sharing and scientific exchanges. The MOU will give us that opportunity.” (See related article.)
SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION
The same Indonesian vessel that will carry the DART also will launch four ATLAS buoys that will be moored to the seafloor in the Indian Ocean.
“NOAA has used the ATLAS buoys for many years to monitor oceanic and atmospheric processes in other oceans,” Spinrad said. “Now, the opportunity to get the same kind of data in the Indian Ocean will be extremely valuable.”
A key challenge in understanding the relationship between ocean and climate, he said, is understanding the movement of water in the ocean. A particularly troublesome area is called the Indonesian throughflow, where warm, low-salinity Pacific water weaves through the Indonesian seas and islands into the eastern boundary of the Indian Ocean.
“Exactly how those currents develop and what volumes of water flow at what times and what rates, how the temperature changes in the water and flows through is very important for us to understand -- for example, El Niño,” he said.
The MOU also will create opportunities for collaboration involving traditional fisheries and aquaculture, and for a relationship between NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program and the Indonesian Sea Partnership Program.
Sea Grant is NOAA’s primary university-based program to promote environmental stewardship, long-term economic development and responsible use of coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources.
The Indonesian Sea Grant Program was established by Widi Pratikto, director general of coasts and small islands in the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, who became familiar with the Sea Grant program while working on his Ph.D. at North Carolina State University.
After returning to Indonesia, he started what has become the Sea Partnership Program in Indonesia, now with a network of 19 regional centers. Spinrad expects students from Indonesia to visit Sea Grant colleges in Florida over the next few months.
TSUNAMI DETECTION
Under a separate agreement, NOAA is contributing a DART system, designed by NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, to be placed at 0 degrees north, 92 degrees east, 700-800 kilometers offshore of Jakarta. Indonesia will provide ship time to launch the buoy and also will maintain the DART.
DART systems provide real-time tsunami detection as waves travel across open water, and each station is linked to a satellite for real-time data transmission on global networks.
Over the next year or two, NOAA and ocean scientists in Indonesia and Thailand also will test the next-generation of DART systems, called easy-to-deploy DARTs, with the same functionality as the current DARTs but deployable from a fishing boat rather than a large ship.
The Indonesian and Thai DARTs are just part of the fledgling Indian Ocean tsunami warning system. An end-to-end system for tsunamis and other hazards begins with hazard detection and forecasting and includes experts to evaluate the threat and issue alerts, a public alert system that includes sirens and cell phone messages, and communities that are prepared for such warnings and know how to respond to save lives and property.
Training and building community awareness are a big part of building such a system, and agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development, NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency have contributed significantly to these and other efforts. (See related article.)
The U.N. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has the lead for developing regionally based programs in the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the Pacific Ocean. But thanks to the Tsunami Warning and Education Act, signed into law in December 2006, U.S. agencies like NOAA have formal authority to contribute to international hazard warning systems, Spinrad said. (See related article.)
“We at NOAA have been and will continue to be active in technology development and technical support,” he added.
An animation of the DART system is available at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Web site.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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