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August
12, 2002
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an
online newsletter for and by NOAA employees
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By Tina Reid, Brett Taft and Eric Meindl Photos by Brett Taft 
In June, Brett Taft, a National Data Buoy Center engineer, led a team that accompanied Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory staff on a 20-day working cruise to service DART, the Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis buoy array in the north Pacific. Under the National Weather Service, the data buoy center will assume operational responsibility of the network next year. The Pacific Marine lab will retain the engineering development portion of the program.  The DART array is used to detect the possible presence of tsunamis and provide this information to the Tsunami Warning Centers in Hawaii and Alaska for proper warnings and preparations in coastal areas vulnerable to tsunamis. The array consists of six stations. There are three stations along the Aleutian Islands: two stations off the coast of Oregon, and one station near the Hawaiian Islands. An expansion station is also being prepared for deployment near the coast of Chile.  Each station is comprised of an independent Bottom Pressure Recorder and a moored buoy. The recorder detects the presence of a possible tsunami by measuring the mean water level based on the water pressure on the sea floor. Once a possible tsunami is detected, this information is transmitted to the surface buoy via acoustic telemetry. Information is then transmitted, in real time, to the Tsunami Warning Centers through NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite network. |
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