Developing tsunami flooding forecast software

Emergency managers and other officials are in urgent need of operational tools that will provide accurate tsunami forecasts as guidance for rapid, critical decisions in which lives and property are at stake. The more timely and precise the warnings are, the more effective actions can local emergency managers take and the more lives and property can be saved.

This paper describes the NOAA tsunami forecast software, which incorporates real-time measurements of sea level from DART® tsunami detection buoys into computer models to provide accurate tsunami forecasts. The tsunami forecast software is deployed at the U.S. Pacific and West Coast- Alaska Tsunami Warning Centers. Forecast products include estimates of tsunami amplitudes, flow velocities and arrival times for offshore, coastal and inundation areas. Real-time tsunami predictions for selected coastal locations are provided by forecast inundation models, while the tsunami is propagating through the open ocean, before the waves have reached many coastlines. New research forecast products indicate how the present forecast warnings can be expanded to provide more detailed information about currents and flooding and in harbors.