The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is getting ready for more advanced and precise Tsunami Warning System where it will be in a position to predict waves hitting the shore of 50 km radius.
Data currently being gathered of the Indian shoreline will also help foresee the extent of submergence place at the identified target area. “We are going for the next level of Tsunami warning where we can narrow down the affected shore line and predict the wave height so that quicker evacuations can be done,” says Director Dr. S.S.C. Shenoi.
Panic reduction“So far we have been issuing oceanic warning, which are general in nature and is leading to panic among people living on the shores over a large area. Once we upscale the warning, we can help the Government to take preventive measures like evacuation and reduce the panic as we can predict to what extent a building will be submerged,” he points out.
For complete mapping of the shoreline, National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) has taken up airborne mapping on the East Coast from Paradip to Kochi while mapping of the West Coast is to be done within a year. INCOIS is creating inundation models with the help of its dozen-odd buoys and about 30 Argo floats meant for checking ocean temperatures and currents.
They keep sending data continuously enabling it to come out with six hourly broadcasts.
“It (forecasting) is a fairly complicated process involving complex mathematical models. We are in a better position now to understand the data obtained from the surface buoys and Argo floats, the constant effort is to reduce errors,” he explains, in an exclusive interaction.
Quicker alertsFaster data determination and quicker alerts will be more possible when the super computer becomes operational by 2017 for making speedy calculations.
Currently being tested at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (Pune), the computer will be shared with INCOIS along with Indian Meteorological Department (IMD, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and National Institute of Ocean Technology – all under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
