Research
End-to-end Development of Time-dependent Geo-targeted Alerts and Warning Enabled by Dense Observations of the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami by the Asthenospheric and Lithospheric Broadband Architecture from the California Offshore Region Experiment (ALBACORE)
Objectives
Tsunami/earthquake research in seismology and civil engineering is being combined with findings from empirical social science research on public responses to warnings to develop enhanced tsunami warning messages in order to improve appropriate protective action taking among members of the public. This project focuses on 2011 Tohoku tsunami data to show how messages can be developed based on data analysis that increase specificity of geo-location, time to impact, and hazard impact, and integrated into the tsunami warning system. In 2011, a dense array of seafloor pressure gauges off southern California recorded the Tohoku tsunami with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.
2011 TOHOKU TSUNAMI RECORDED ON THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ALBACORE OBS ARRAY
Project Components
- Mapping sources of wave energy in ALBACORE pressure gauge tsunami data through application of migration, beamforming, back-projection, and frequency-dependent techniques that characterize multiple transient waves
- Identification of physical sources - trapped waves, scattering by bathymetric features - of multiple, large-amplitude, wave arrivals through numerical modeling and analysis of 2011 Tohoku tsunami data recorded on ALBACORE and NOAA pressure gauge sensors
- Generating specificity-enhanced emergency alert and warning message content, using the geophysical results, that will be assessed in focus groups and evaluated via online experiments with the public, to determine how new message content affects message receiver understanding, believing, and personalizing.
People
Monica Kohler, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Caltech
Jean-Paul Ampuero, Seismological Laboratory, Caltech)
Jeannette Sutton, Department of Communication, University of Kentucky
Related links
U.S. National Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool (OBSIP)
University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS)
Funded by the National Science Foundation Hazards SEES program
