Long-Term Tsunami Data Archive Supports Tsunami Forecast, Warning, Research, and Mitigation

Abstract

In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the United States began a careful review and strengthening of its programs aimed at reducing the consequences of tsunamis. Several reports and calls to action were drafted, including the Tsunami Warning and Education Act (Public Law 109-424) signed into law by the President in December 2006. NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and co-located World Data Center for Geophysics and Marine Geology (WDC-GMG) maintain a national and international tsunami data archive that fulfills part of the P.L. 109-424. The NGDC/WDC-GMG long-term tsunami data archive has expanded from the original global historical event databases and damage photo collection, to include tsunami deposits, coastal water-level data, DART TM buoy data, and high-resolution coastal DEMs. These data are used to validate models, provide guidance to warning centers, develop tsunami hazard assessments, and educate the public about the risks from tsunamis. In this paper we discuss current steps and future actions to be taken by NGDC/WDC-GMG to support tsunami hazard mitigation research, to ultimately help save lives and improve the resiliency of coastal communities.

Nationwide Post Event Survey and Analysis of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami

“…Discussions are now underway about combining survey measurement data, aerial data, and satellite data. Analyses employing these multiple types of data will be important to understand this event and necessary to validate different types of numerical models [Dunbar et al, 2008] and fragility functions . Notably, local inundation heights and run-up heights differed between neighboring locations.…”

A Meteotsunami Climatology along the U.S. East Coast

“…Since meteotsunami wave periods are relatively long oscillations, the observed wave signal is not expected to be influenced by the type of sensor used or the acoustic sensor's protective well, which has been shown to primarily filter high-frequency wind waves (Park et al 2014). Although 1-min observations are primarily collected and utilized to observe seismic tsunamis (Dunbar et al 2017(Dunbar et al , 2008, the much shorter time series and substantial gaps prevent using these observations for a climatology. Instead, 1-min data are used to assess the potential biases introduced by using the lowerfrequency 6-min data for peak-to-trough wave height and wave period estimates (see sidebar).…”

“…Using 1-min data would be ideal, as the high-frequency oscillations and sometimes extreme peak water level can be either aliased or underestimated when using the 6-min observations. However, quality-controlled 1-min observations (Dunbar et al 2008) are not available at any locations until 2007 and even quality-controlled time series have significant data gaps making filtering and wavelet analyses impractical.…”

Introduction to “Tsunami Science Four Years After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Part I: Modelling and Hazard Assessment”

“…One example that is described is Tide Tool, which was developed by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to continuously download and decode sea-level data globally and to monitor tsunamis in real-time. DUNBAR et al (2008) describe the enhancements to the National Geophysical Data Center World Data Center for Geophysics and Marine Geology (WDC-GMG) national and international long-term tsunami data archive since 2004. The archive has expanded from the original global historical event databases and damage photo collection, to include tsunami deposits, coastal water-level data, DART buoy data, and high-resolution coastal Digital Elevation Model datasets for supporting model validation, guidance to warning centers, tsunami hazard assessment, and education of the public.…”