{"id":283058,"date":"2025-09-13T01:10:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T15:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=913294"},"modified":"2025-09-13T01:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T15:10:34","slug":"nasas-guardian-tsunami-detection-tech-catches-wave-in-real-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=283058","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s GUARDIAN Tsunami Detection Tech Catches Wave in Real Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"A<\/a><\/figure>
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Honolulu is pictured here beside a calm sea in 2017. A JPL technology recently detected and confirmed a tsunami up to 45 minutes prior to detection by tide gauges in Hawaii, and it estimated the speed of the wave to be over 580 miles per hour (260 meters per second) near the coast.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami off Russia in late July tested an experimental detection system that had deployed a critical component just the day before.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

A recent tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia\u2019s Kamchatka Peninsula sent pressure waves to the upper layer of the atmosphere, NASA scientists have reported. While the tsunami did not wreak widespread damage, it was an early test for a detection system being developed at the agency\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.<\/p>\n

Called GUARDIAN<\/a> (GNSS Upper Atmospheric Real-time Disaster Information and Alert Network), the experimental technology \u201cfunctioned to its full extent,\u201d said Camille Martire, one of its developers at JPL. The system flagged distortions in the atmosphere and issued notifications to subscribed subject matter experts in as little as 20 minutes after the quake<\/a>. It confirmed signs of the approaching tsunami about 30 to 40 minutes before waves made landfall in Hawaii and sites across the Pacific on July 29 (local time).<\/p>\n

\u201cThose extra minutes of knowing something is coming could make a real difference when it comes to warning communities in the path,\u201d said JPL scientist Siddharth Krishnamoorthy.<\/p>\n

Near-real-time outputs from GUARDIAN must be interpreted by experts trained to identify the signs of tsunamis. But already it\u2019s one of the fastest monitoring tools of its kind: Within about 10 minutes<\/a> of receiving data, it can produce a snapshot of a tsunami\u2019s rumble reaching the upper atmosphere.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>
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The dots in this graph indicate wave disturbances in the ionosphere as measured be-tween ground stations and navigation satellites. The initial spike shows the acoustic wave coming from the epicenter of the July 29 quake that caused the tsunami; the red squiggle shows the gravity wave the tsunami generated.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The goal of GUARDIAN is to augment existing early warning systems. A key question after a major undersea earthquake is whether a tsunami was generated. Today, forecasters use seismic data as a proxy to predict if and where a tsunami could occur, and they rely on sea-based instruments to confirm that a tsunami is passing by. Deep-ocean pressure sensors remain the gold standard when it comes to sizing up waves, but they are expensive and sparse in locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA\u2019s GUARDIAN can help fill the gaps,\u201d said Christopher Moore, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Tsunami Research. \u201cIt provides one more piece of information, one more valuable data point, that can help us determine, yes, we need to make the call to evacuate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore noted that GUARDIAN adds a unique perspective: It\u2019s able to sense sea surface motion from high above Earth, globally and in near-real-time.<\/p>\n

Bill Fry, chair of the United Nations technical working group responsible for tsunami early warning in the Pacific, said GUARDIAN is part of a technological \u201cparadigm shift.\u201d By directly observing ocean dynamics from space, \u201cGUARDIAN is absolutely something that we in the early warning community are looking for to help underpin next generation forecasting.\u201d<\/p>\n

How GUARDIAN works<\/strong><\/h3>\n

GUARDIAN takes advantage of tsunami physics. During a tsunami, many square miles of the ocean surface can rise and fall nearly in unison. This displaces a significant amount of air above it, sending low-frequency sound and gravity waves speeding upwards toward space. The waves interact with the charged particles of the upper atmosphere \u2014 the ionosphere \u2014 where they slightly distort the radio signals coming down to scientific ground stations of GPS and other positioning and timing satellites. These satellites are known collectively as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS<\/a>).<\/p>\n

While GNSS processing methods on Earth correct for such distortions, GUARDIAN uses them as clues.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tSWOT Satellite Measures Pacific Tsunami<\/span>
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The software scours a trove of data transmitted to more than 350 continuously operating GNSS ground stations around the world. It can potentially identify evidence of a tsunami up to about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) from a given station. In ideal situations, vulnerable coastal communities near a GNSS station could know when a tsunami was heading their way and authorities would have as much as 1 hour and 20 minutes to evacuate the low-lying areas, thereby saving countless lives and property.<\/p>\n

Key to this effort is the network of GNSS stations around the world supported by NASA\u2019s Space Geodesy Project<\/a> and Global GNSS Network, as well as JPL\u2019s Global Differential GPS network that transmits the data in real time.<\/p>\n

The Kamchatka event offered a timely case study for GUARDIAN. A day before the quake off Russia\u2019s northeast coast, the team had deployed two new elements that were years in the making: an artificial intelligence to mine signals of interest and an accompanying prototype messaging system.<\/p>\n

Both were put to the test when one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded spawned a tsunami<\/a> traveling hundreds of miles per hour across the Pacific Ocean. Having been trained to spot the kinds of atmospheric distortions caused by a tsunami, GUARDIAN flagged the signals for human review and notified subscribed subject matter experts.<\/p>\n

Notably, tsunamis are most often caused by large undersea earthquakes, but not always. Volcanic eruptions, underwater landslides, and certain weather conditions in some geographic locations can all produce dangerous waves. An advantage of GUARDIAN is that it doesn\u2019t require information on what caused a tsunami; rather, it can detect that one was generated and then can alert the authorities to help minimize the loss of life and property. <\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no silver bullet to stop a tsunami from making landfall, \u201cGUARDIAN has real potential to help by providing open access to this data,\u201d said Adrienne Moseley, co-director of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre. \u201cTsunamis don\u2019t respect national boundaries. We need to be able to share data around the whole region to be able to make assessments about the threat for all exposed coastlines.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about GUARDIAN, visit:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/guardian.jpl.nasa.gov<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

News Media Contacts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Jane J. Lee \/ Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 \/ 818-354-0307
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a> \/ andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a> <\/p>\n

Written by Sally Younger<\/p>\n

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A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami off Russia in late July tested an experimental detection system that had deployed a critical component just the day before. A recent tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia\u2019s Kamchatka Peninsula sent pressure waves to the upper layer of the atmosphere, NASA scientists have reported. While the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15644,15600,16977,15607,16037,15645,16751,15963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earth","category-earth-science","category-earthquakes","category-jet-propulsion-laboratory","category-natural-disasters","category-oceans","category-tsunamis","category-water-on-earth"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283058"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284543,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283058\/revisions\/284543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}