After the horrific events of the Indian Ocean Tsunami on December 26, 2004, the need for a tsunami warning system was apparent. As part of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP), the Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) Project is an ongoing effort to maintain and improve the capability for the early detection and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open ocean. Developed by NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and operated by NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), DART is essential to fulfilling NOAA's national responsibility for tsunami hazard mitigation and warnings. When completed in mid2007, the DART Project will consist of 32 DART buoys.
These buoys are in place to reduce the loss of life and property along the U.S. coastal communities as well as eliminating costly false alarms. The buoys are strategically placed in regions with a history of generating destructive tsunamis. The buoys, which are in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean basins, provide monitoring for over half of the worlds oceans. Other countries, such as Chile are implementing similar programs to expand the tsunami warning capabilities. Realtime DART buoy information
Science On a Sphere
