The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) joined the government of Thailand in launching the first Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami, or DART, buoy station in the Indian Ocean to assist in detecting tsunamis.

Following a ceremony in Phuket, Thailand, where the December 26, 2004 event caused the most extensive tsunami damage in Thailand, the MV SEAFDEC set sail Friday to deploy the buoy about mid-way between Thailand and Sri Lanka. NOAA scientists and engineers are onboard to provide technical assistance during the launch operations.

With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, NOAA built and provided the DART station on behalf of the U.S. government. The buoy will be maintained by the Thai Meteorological Department and National Disaster Warning Center. The station's data will be available to all nations through the World Meteorological Organization Global Telecommunications System and will be part of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems.

The Thai buoy is the first of 22 tsunameters planned for the Indian Ocean's regional tsunami warning system. NOAA will provide a second DART buoy farther to the south in the spring of 2007. This is part of an end-to-end warning system that includes tide gauges, communications upgrades, modeling, and dissemination systems for five countries -- Indonesia, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

"This is one of the most important milestones in building a robust tsunami warning and mitigation system for the Indian Ocean region," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "I'm pleased that NOAA could contribute the technology and technical expertise to the Indian Ocean Warning System Program. Once operational, this system has the potential to save lives."

The DART system provides real-time tsunami detection as waves travel across open waters. The stations consist of a bottom pressure sensor that is anchored to the seafloor and a companion moored surface buoy. An acoustic link transmits data from the bottom pressure sensor to the surface buoy, and then satellite links relay the data to ground stations. The DART buoys were developed by the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and are being transitioned into NOAA's operational tsunami warning system that is being deployed.

Until a regional tsunami warning capability is established, the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii and the Japan Meteorological Agency, are providing tsunami advisory and watches alerts to 27 Indian Ocean countries on an interim basis. The individual countries then determine if and how they issue a warning to their publics.

Photos by NOAA