HR: 17:15h
AN: U54A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Real-time Tsunami Warning Operations at the NOAA West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
AU: Whitmore, P
EM: paul.whitmore@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: * Huang, P
EM: paul.huang@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Crowley, H
EM: heather.crowley@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Ferris, J
EM: justin.ferris@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Hale, D
EM: david.hale@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Knight, W
EM: william.knight@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Medbery, A
EM: alec.medbery@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Nyland, D
EM: david.nyland@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Preller, C
EM: cindi.preller@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Turner, B
EM: bruce.turner@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AU: Urban, G
EM: guy.urban@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, 910 South Felton Street, Palmer, AK 99645, United States
AB: The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC) in Palmer, Alaska and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, provide tsunami warning services for a large portion of the world's coasts. The WCATWC has primary responsibility for providing tsunami detection, warnings, and forecasts to Canada, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and all U.S. States except Hawaii. WCATWC also acts as back-up for the PTWC, requiring the center to constantly monitor global tsunami activities by rapidly detecting and evaluating earthquakes for their tsunamigenic potential. The Centers' goals are to issue initial messages as quickly as possible to alert those near the source to potential danger (assuming there is any), and to follow that with a reasonable forecast of impact level. With these goals in mind, a Watchstander's initial action is based entirely on estimates of tsunami potential from the earthquake's source parameters. The course of action for the first message is determined primarily by the earthquake's magnitude, location, tsunami history, tsunami travel time, estimated threat based on pre-computed models, and pre-set criteria. Supplemental messages, if necessary, are based on wave observations and forecasts generated from hydrodynamic models (which are calibrated with near real-time observations). In April 2006, the WCATWC increased staff level so that the Center can be staffed 24/7 with two watchstanders. Since then, the Center's response time for events within the primary area-of-responsibility has decreased to less than 5 minutes. In order to illustrate the WCATWC's real time tsunami warning operational environment, tsunami warning operation timelines for several tsunamigenic earthquakes - including the September 12 southern Sumatra 8.4 and the January 13 Kuril Island 8.1 earthquakes - are provided. The timelines highlight the key parameters and observations that guide tsunami warning operations chronicling the event through: 1) initial alarm, 2) earthquake analysis, 3) dissemination of information, 4) sea level observation/forecasting model calibration, and 5) supplemental message dissemination. The timelines demonstrate processing and dissemination capabilities.
DE: 4534 Hydrodynamic modeling
DE: 4564 Tsunamis and storm surges
DE: 7299 General or miscellaneous
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting