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GRIPS - Tsunami Early Warning System at the Zugspitze

One of the research projects at the Zugspitze comes as a surprise to most visitors. Scientists from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are working on "GRIPS", a device designed to improve tsunami early warning systems.
The early warning system that Germany helped install in the Indian Ocean last year has a network of sensors at the sea bed, the water surface and the coast to detect seaquakes that might set off the massive waves. But whether a tsunami will actually occur is difficult to say. GRIPS may help. The device acts as a highly sensitive microphone to detect density fluctuations in the atmosphere generated by tsunamis. These acoustic signals lie in the infra-sound region (with frequencies around 1Hz). They are also produced by other events, such as when a piece of a meteor penetrates the earth's atmosphere. Such frequent events can be easily picked up by GRIPS on the Zugspitze. The device is being tested for industrial use. Next year it will be put to work in Asia to help make tsunami monitoring more reliable. Patrick Benning.


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A beach in the Indian Ocean. An earthquake could occure beneath the sea floor. Its energy produces a giant wave that rolls toward the land. Geoscientists can describe with great precision how a tsunami is born - and what path it will take. They can even listen in on signals it makes in the atmosphere. The technology for the eavesdropping project is being tested here on the Zugspitze.



It involves an infra-red measuring spectrometer called GRIPS. It is designed to sense the wave coming before it hits the shore. In 2004 there was no warning before the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami first struck the Indonesian coast. It killed 250 thousand people throughout the region. That prompted scientists at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam to offer their services for an early warning system. Jörn Lauterjung from the German Research Center, Potsdam, says:



"The special challenge with Indonesia in the Indian Ocean is that the earthquake risk zone - known as the Sunda Arc - runs practically parallel to the Indonesian coast - so no matter where an earthquake occurs, we're talking about warning times between 20 and 40 minutes." Two tectonic plates, the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian continental plates, converge here off the coast of Indonesia. Over the past three years a network of sensors has been set up in the danger zone - both on the water and at the ocean floor.



The interplay of the different components is crucial for the warning system. The underwater sensor measures seismic tremors. But not every seaquake causes a tsunami. The instruments in the buoy measure the corresponding motion of the water. Seismographs have been installed on the coast to register land tremors. Sea level sensors will sound a warning if the ocean starts to recede - typical behavior before a tsunami hits. The positions of all the measuring systems are monitored by GPS. The idea is to have as much data as possible, as quickly as possible in case of emergency.



A communications satellite relays the information to a control center on land. That's where the decision is made - is it a tsunami or not? Where will it appear? There's no more than five minutes to analyze the data and raise the alarm. Jörn Lauterjung explaines: "The aim of constructing early warning systems is always to minimize false alarms. That's why we have all these different sensor systems. These are systems that operate independently of each other to collect as much information as possible in the very early phase of a tsunami." Has the quake on the sea bed generated a tsunami? The German geoscientists found that they don't only have to find its position in the water to answer that question. The wave behaves like the membrane of a loudspeaker, transmitting sound to the air. The tones the wave produce are in the so-called infra-sound region of the acoustic spectrum. The frequency is too low for the human ear to pick them up, but they leave traces in upper atmosphere - where they cause characteristic temperature fluctuations.



The GRIPS spectrometer can measure those changes and recognize the tsunami. The institute on the Zugspitze offers an ideal place to measure the effects. The thin air at this high-altitude lab, allows the infra-sound waves in the atmosphere to be readily detected.



GRIPS is due to be part of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System next year. It will help avoid a repeat of the devastating events of 2004.

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Indexed: 25/05/2009 02:30
Views: 1327
Source: Tomorrow Today

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