The AWIPS Tsunami Operations Messaging Service (ATOMS): A Modernization in Tsunami Threat Messaging

The United States has two Tsunami Warning Centers (TWCs) in Palmer, AK and Honolulu, HI, who between them are responsible for tsunami threat messaging for most of the world’s ocean basins. Currently, these two centers have different homegrown computing systems to solve quake parameters, analyze sea-level data, and issue tsunami alerts. This shortcoming of a consistent set of operational procedures between these offices can hinder the ability to provide mutual aid in the event of a computing outage as the backup procedures are not seamless or intuitive. An independent panel concluded that it would be a great service improvement to the United States and our partners if this tsunami warning system were overhauled.

NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) has a long history of advancing warning modernization initiatives and is currently developing Hazard Services, a unified, highly configurable, and customizable system that will be used to issue all watches, warnings, and advisories from National Weather Service and National Center offices. It represents a long overdue modernization in how natural hazards and their associated impacts can be analyzed and lead to the creation of clear, action-oriented, and effective forecasts and warnings to the public.

Hazard Services is the optimal choice for becoming the TWCs new tsunami messaging system for two reasons. First, it will already be the common operating platform for issuing hazardous weather and non-weather messages at National Weather Service and National Center offices. Second, its framework allows for the creation of any alerting (i.e., warning, advisory, outlook) product, even if these workflows were not historically produced within AWIPS. This endeavor to bring tsunami alert messaging capabilities into AWIPS is called the AWIPS Tsunami Operations Messaging Service (ATOMS).

There are several development efforts underway at GSL to support the ATOMS software framework:

• The creation of a Physical Event Manager (PEM). The PEM allows for seismic, landslide, volcanic, outer space objects, meteotsunamis, and events of unknown origin and its associated metadata that are processed by the TWC’s shared Common Analysis System (CAS) to be displayable in AWIPS.
• The creation of Hazard Services tools and recommenders to rapidly produce threat area suggestions and the anticipated watch, warning, advisory, statement, or threat messages.
• A robust hazard metadata, product generation, formatting, and dissemination framework to be able to create multiple message formats simultaneously to address the public and core partners on the communication channels where they are most likely to access the threat information.

This presentation will provide the audience with an overview of these development efforts and summarize its current progress towards TWCs operations.