Indonesia, Japan, Chile… These countries have one thing in common: they have been severely affected by tsunamis. The force of nature from the waters is impressive and dangerous. But NASA is working on a satellite network to capture them from the atmosphere by their sound.
The result is that, thanks to the alert, there may be up to an hour to clear the area that will receive the impact.
The GUARDIAN network (GNSS Network for Real-Time Disaster Information and Warning from the Upper Atmosphere) uses data from GPS satellites around the globe.
GNSS means Global Navigation Satellite Systems, for its acronym in English.
But, How does the NASA GUARDIAN network work? And how can you alert us about tsunamis?
This is how NASA’s GUARDIAN network works, to detect tsunamis by their sound
The radio signals travel to hundreds of ground science stations around the world, and are processed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Global Differential GPS network.
Next, the signals are filtered in search of indications that tsunamis occurred somewhere on Earth.
Air vibrations from the ocean surface, caused by the movement of the Earth, end up reaching the atmosphere. It is the powerful sound of tsunamis. When the pressure waves collide with the charged particles, the signals from the satellites are slightly distorted.
This is when they air tsunami warnings.
In accordance with Leo Martirefrom NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, GUARDIAN’s near real-time results are interpreted by experts. In 10 minutes a kind of “sound image” is already produced.
the alert gives an hour for the authorities and the population to take forecasts regarding the tsunamis to come.
The ideal complement to existing land and ocean instruments
Siddharth Krishnamoorthy is a member of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory team and explains the value of the GUARDIAN network.
“We envision that GUARDIAN will one day complement existing terrestrial and ocean instruments, such as seismometers, buoys and tide gauges, which are very effective, but lack systematic coverage of the open ocean”, points out the researcher.
For the moment, GUARDIAN focuses on the Pacific Ocean, close to its Ring of Fire. According to NASA, about 78% of the more than 750 tsunamis that occurred between 1900 and 2015 occurred in the region.
At some point, not only its expansion is expected, but its total improvement.