NASA created a novel system that can anticipate a tsunami up to an hour. The surveillance method takes advantage of GPS data from various satellites to “listen” for noise caused by these natural phenomena in the atmosphere.
they called him GUARDIAN: The acronym for GNSS Upper Atmosphere Disaster Information and Alert Network. The system takes advantage of data from several groups of GPS satellites and other guidance satellites that orbit the Earth. These groups, all together, are known as Global Navigation Satellite Systems, or GNSS.
“When it comes to early warning, every second counts,” the US space agency said in a statement. release. He reported that the project is in charge of a group of scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It is a novel method to detect, from the ends of the atmosphere, the deadliest waves in the ocean.”
During tsunamis, NASA explained, many square kilometers of the ocean’s surface can rise and fall almost in unison. This action displaces a significant amount of air overhead, which undulates in all directions in the shape of a low frequency sound and gravitational waves. Within a few minutes, these waves reach the upper layer of the atmosphere and often distort satellite signals. And there is the key.
These distortions are the ones that would be used to save lives. “Instead of correcting this as a mistake, we use it as data to find natural hazards,” said Léo Martire, a scientist at the lab developing GUARDIAN.
NASA system is one of the fastest to detect tsunamis
The new alert system is still in the testing phase. The near real-time results from GUARDIAN have yet to be interpreted by qualified experts to confirm that it is an eventual tsunami. With all this, this NASA tool is already one of the fastest in its class.
This NASA mechanism can produce in 10 minutes a kind of snapshot of the thunder that tsunamis cause when they reach the ionosphere. This would give it the ability to issue an early warning up to an hour in advance, depending on the distance between the tsunami source and the coast.
GUARDIAN is focusing its tests on the most geologically active area of the Pacific Ocean Ring of Fire. In this region, about 78% of the more than 750 confirmed tsunamis occurred between 1900 and 2015, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The system currently monitors just over half of this region in the Pacific.
The team is also developing a website that will allow experts to explore the state of the ionosphere in near real time. The idea is to make available individual links from satellite stations in the GNSS network. In this way, users can access data from about 90 stations around the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The ultimate goal is to expand coverage and refine the system. NASA’s development is focused on making the system automatic, in order to detect tsunamis and other hazards such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.