What are the key elements needed to create a more effective tsunami warning system?
DG: What’s needed is an end-to-end system, with the technology and science to detect [a tsunami], to watch it as it propagates, and to look at and understand how it impacts exposed areas. What we have to do is turn all the observations and the data into warning information. CMG: And what are some of the newer technologies and approaches that NOAA is looking into, to get speedier detection and relay information? DG: There are two aspects to observational technology and data. One is that you might need a unique type of data, and a very unique tool to measure it. But to provide warnings in real-time, you need a lot of different types of information very quickly. So we’re looking into [using] buoy offshore networks and deep-ocean sensing as multiuse platforms for ocean pressure monitoring, seismic monitoring and GPS sensing (see Geotimes, August 2006). CMG: Where do you see the most hope right now for establishing the earliest possible warnings? DG: Deep-ocean sensing is the most mature an
