NASA Successfully Tests New Technology for Tsunami Detection

Sept. 19—NASA has announced a successful test of its new system for detecting tsunamis after an earthquake in the ocean. The system is called GUARDIAN (GNSS Upper Atmospheric Real-time Disaster Information and Alert Network; GNSS refers to the Global Navigation Satellite System, a general term including positioning and timing satellite systems: the U.S. GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo, and China’s Beidou.) It has been developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The GUARDIAN system collects data from multiple sources, and then these data are interpreted by analysts.

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in July off the coast of Russia was detected by the GNSS, because the underwater earthquake not only lifted the water directly above the epicenter, but also sent pressure waves to the upper layer of the atmosphere (ionosphere).

“The system flagged distortions in the atmosphere and issued notifications to subscribed subject matter experts in as little as 20 minutes after the quake. It confirmed signs of the approaching tsunami about 30 to 40 minutes before waves made landfall in Hawaii and sites across the Pacific on July 29 (local time),” reported NASA. The tsunami didn’t inflict widespread damage.

“Near-real-time outputs from GUARDIAN must be interpreted by experts trained to identify the signs of tsunamis. But already it’s one of the fastest monitoring tools of its kind: Within about 10 minutes of receiving data, it can produce a snapshot of a tsunami’s rumble reaching the upper atmosphere,” NASA further noted.

There are widespread tsunami warning systems in place for many regions which have shores facing the Pacific Ocean; Japan and Hawaii probably possess the most sophisticated systems and evacuation plans in place, and these systems are primarily based on buoys which detect swells far out at sea, or other physical detection systems.

“The goal of GUARDIAN is to augment existing early warning systems. A key question after a major undersea earthquake is whether a tsunami was generated. Today, forecasters use seismic data as a proxy to predict if and where a tsunami could occur, and they rely on sea-based instruments to confirm that a tsunami is passing by. Deep-ocean pressure sensors remain the gold standard when it comes to sizing up waves, but they are expensive and sparse in locations.

“‘NASA’s GUARDIAN can help fill the gaps,’ said Christopher Moore, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Tsunami Research. ‘It provides one more piece of information, one more valuable data point, that can help us determine, yes, we need to make the call to evacuate.’”

An area of potential fruitful collaboration would be with Russian Prof. Sergey Pulinets, who has carried out extensive and groundbreaking research on the role of anomalies within the atmosphere as being precursors to earthquake activity, even before a tsunami would be generated. Dr. Pulinets, who has participated in several events sponsored by the Schiller Institute, is a Principal Research Scientist in the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is “a leader of an international team of scientists proposing the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere coupling concept related to seismo-tectonics, active faulting and earthquake processes,” reported the Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC), located in Los Angeles.

GUARDIAN’s website provides full details on how GUARDIAN works, and with interactive maps.