India's tsunami warning system will issue alerts about the killer tidal waves within 10 minutes of a massive earthquake hitting the sea bottom and "more accurate" warnings will follow soon after.
NEW DELHI: India's tsunami warning system will issue alerts about the killer tidal waves within 10 minutes of a massive earthquake hitting the sea bottom and "more accurate" warnings will follow soon after.
Minister for Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal claimed the Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges, being developed by his ministry, will issue "more accurate" warnings than the existing systems around the world.
Addressing the media on the second anniversary of the tsunami that killed an estimated 2.5 lakh people in a dozen countries in south and south-east Asia, he said "we will keep our promise of giving the country a world class tsunami warning system by September 2007."
Noting that the existing tsunami warning system issued as many as 60 per cent false warnings, Sibal said the Indian system would issue a warning after analysing data from the bottom pressure recorders -- ten such devices are being installed in the Bay of Bengal region and two in the Arabian Sea.
Seventeen automatic tide gauges have been installed in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean that would enable monitoring of tidal activity round-the-clock, he said.
Thirty-three more such gauges are planned to be installed along the Indian coastline to alert the residents of the coastal regions of an impending tsunami in a bid to avoid a repeat of the 2004 disaster, when several thousands of people were killed due to lack of advance warning about the iller tidal waves.
The ministry has roped in Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting up of satellite-based communication facility for receiving real time data from the tide gauges and the bottom pressure recorders, Sibal said.
An interim early warning mechanism is operational round-the-clock at the Indian National Centre for Information Services, Hyderabad.
As a part of strengthening seismic network for near real time monitoring of potential Tsunamigenic earthquakes, 17 inter-connected broadband seismic stations will be set up and for real time communication of data to the Central Receiving Station (CRS) of India Meteorological Department here and to the Parallel CRS at INCOIS, Hyderabad.
The strengthened network of earthquake moinitoring is likely to be operational by mid-2007.
Five coastal observing radars and two current meter moorings are planned to be installed towards monitoring storm surges and understanding physical behavior of oceans.
One high frequency radar has been successfully used to detect and measure the strength of advancing waves.
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