Tsunami Assessment Buoy
General information
Fatima Hassan
F_995@outlook.com
Electrical and Electronic Eng. Department
University of Sharjah
This paper gives us an overview about a new technology for
next generation. Of a machine indicates Tsunami cases -tsunami
assessment system-. The technical level of this paper is for
engineers and scientists and anyone is interesting in this
area/topic. Will start by brief introduction, history, passing
through where we can find it, then classified define the elements
of RFID system, and finally the conclusion.
I. INTRODUCTION
In December/26/2004 there was 9.0 earthquake, the
resulting tsunami killed more than 3000,000 people, it caused
a highest record of damages ever. After three months a second
earthquake occurred of magnitude 8.7, this one has instilled
more fear in survivors of the first disaster, by that now
everyone is wondering when is the next tsunami? – see
figure1-
Figure 1- first and second earthquake areas
As a result of this tragedy, all of scientists and engineers
in SICA (Science Application International Corporation) was
interesting to develop and create a strong tsunami warning
system based on NOAA’s standards as soon as it is possible
to avoid any other disasters.
Marine Environmental Laboratory – which is NOAA’s
research and development lab.
II. DART BUOY SYSTEM
First generation DART I, the prototype developing begin
in 1995, by 2000 they came up with 4 DART stations. it had
only one way communication to NOAA’s Tsunami warning
center, which was depending on software’s ability to locate
tsunami’s events mode. Transmitting data once per hour
through 4 sea-level height observation with 15 min’s intervals.
It was compressed of two separate parts, bottom pressure
recorder and surface buoy.
Second generation tsunami buoy, or DARTII, were
developed around 2004, presenting two way of
communications between bottom pressure recorder and
NOAA tsunami warning center. Allowing for real time
command and controlling. Indian tsunami disaster on 2004
had fueled U.S DART development and it complete on 2008
with 39 buoy -see figure2-.
Figure 2 - bottom pressure recorder, used in
1st and 2nd buoy
III. ETD DART SYSTEM
Over last 10 years, PML has continued to invest in
development of new generation of tsunami assessment
technology called ETD (Easy To Deploy) DART buoy, which
is a redesigned DART that has a number of technical
improvement like integrating the bottom pressure recorder
and surface buoy, and decrease the total coast (deployment,
production.).
Once at deployment site, ETD DART required only few
min’s of deployment time. It can be safely deployed up to
maximum sea level 5. As a result of improving DART is the
difference in Wight and size, which add more positivity to
ETD DART system and allows for very simple and rapid
deployment. -see figure3-.
Figure 3 - size deference between ETD DART and standard DART
IV. ETD DART SYSTEM COMPONENT
ETD DART system has three parts, Surface buoy, BPR
(Bottom Pressure Recorder), Mooring and Anchor.
Surface buoy: surface buoy system combine a fiberglass
over foam with electronics. Load cell. Metrological sensors
(wind speed and direction, sea surface temperature,
barometric pressure), And acoustic/vocal communications
modem. Electronics includes GPS (Global Position System),
on-board processing, Iridium satellite communication system,
batteries, and other electronics. -see figure4-.
Figure 3 - compression of ETD DART and previous DART
Figure 4 - ETD DART buoy components
BPR (Bottom Pressure Recorder): is housed in single
6000m rated aluminum utensil/vessel -see figure5-.
Vocal/Acoustic communications between surface buoy and
BPR is achieved with bidirectional mid-frequency (16-
21kHz).
New design of ETD pressure system eject four housing
and all wet-mate interconnect cables that expensive to build
and test.
Figure 5 - BPR subsystem
Mooring and Anchor subsystem: ETD mooring is
produced in one continues length and is manufactured from a
number of composite materials. The continuous mooring line
is included on a reel integrated into the system’s anchor and
run through a series of packs. When the ETD is deployed over
the side, the anchor and reel detach from the buoy and drop to
the bottom with the mooring line paid out continuously. The
ETD DART precise depth information is not required, as is
the case for the standard DART system.
V. IMPROVEMENT TO THE STANDERS DART
improvement on slandered DART to produce ETD DART
system [1]:
1. Deployments made less hazardous in higher sea state
conditions
• Smaller system size and integrated
shipping/deployment pallet
• Faster and less complicated deployment tasks
2. Eliminated need for large deployment ship and skilled
crew
• Ship charter-hire costs significantly reduced
• Labor costs significantly reduced
3. Increased reliability of the BPR by eliminating wet-
mate cables and connectors
4. Reduced BPR material costs by eliminating four
pressure vessels (both titanium and aluminum)
5. Reduced labor costs of overall production
6. Enhanced vandalism protection
7. Potentially reduced lifecycle costs
8. Economized operations resulting from ETD design,
as compared with traditional requirements (and
constraints) for deployment of fixed moorings in the
open ocean.
VI. ETD DART DEPLOYMENT As we can see from figure 6 and figure 7, it happened by
small crew with minimal training with on-board equipment,
ETD DART is placed on deck. Once it reaches the location, it
will unsecured from shipment frame and then tipped around
1m off the deck, will cause ETD to slide into the water and
will deploy by itself. Mooring reel and anchor will separate
from buoy after reaching and entering the water, and will sink
up to 100m per one minute.

VII. APPLICATION - OPERATIONS IN THE CORAL SEA

On 2.JUN.2010, first ETD DART system was shipped by
maritime freight to metrology office in Australia/Melbourne.
The ETD was designed to replace a STB system that had been
damaged by a category 5 tropical cyclone. Later on
21/AUG/2010 deployment operation was served by a small
ocean-going workboat of length 34m. after loading for the
next four days, the data was transmission from BPR via
surface buoy, to the satellite, down to the ground station.
Early on 27.AUG.2010 the ship is arrived to the station
and prepared for deployment operation during a short time
were the sea drops to 3m. the ship’s A-Frame lifted the end of
the shipping frame on the deck around 1 m, when gravity took
over, sliding the integrated whole system (buoy-mooring-
anchor) system down the frame and into the sea. It took less
than 10 seconds from the time of dropping began to the buoy
entering the water and separating from the anchor.
Figure 6 - ETD deployment - 1 The anchor settled on the bottom around 45 min later.-see
figure8 and figure9- Throughout the descent, the BPR
provided depth reports every 2 minutes. Over the next several
days, the Australian Tsunami Warning Center closely
monitored the performance of the ETD DART.

Figure 8 - deployment in the coral sea

Figure 7 - ETD deployment - 2


Figure 9 - deployment in the coral sea
on 2.FRB.2011 the system proof how much can stand in
different severe weather after surviving from a direct strike by
category 5 cyclone named Yasi. It generates winds around
130kn and seas estimates around 15m. after the cyclone
passed over the ETD DART a barometer recorded a drop in
atmospheric pressure. As a result of this strong cyclone there
is some missing data was replaced by a dashed line -see figure
10-. Although the system was not prepared well to dace this
kind of weathers, but it survived and continued to operate only
couple of hours are missing.
Figure 10 - atmospheric drops while super cyclone Yasi passing
On march.11.2011 a passive earthquake hit a city in japan,
it recorded as one of the most powerful earthquake ever in
japan. It generate a global waves detected by 30 DART
systems. As a result the entire Pacific Basin put under a
tsunami warning.
A number of significant tsunami waves were detected by
coral sea ETA DART system around 9.5h after the
earthquake. ETD DART station approximately detected the
first wave with an amplitude around 30mm for 35 min as
shown in -figure11-
Figure 11 - tsunami waves detected by coral sea ETD DART
VIII. NEW GENERATION
There is a new generation of DART buoy, 4th Generation
or 4G, began to development on 2013. It is the latest version
of DART to detect and measure a near-field tsunami with
unpredictable resolution. Because of the improved pressure
sensor will provide valuable information to warning center
even faster, and allowing the moorings to place near earth
quick zones.
Figure 12 - DART's generation
IX. CONCLUSION
In conclusion saving lives it something great, and by this
invention on many years of developing we can finally save
some if it. In our report, we talked about DART system and its
mission, specially we talked about ETD DART buoy system
of 3rd generation, and procedure of deploying, and at the end
we talked about the latest generation 4G. what I would like to
mention on it, sometimes the disaster happened to save a lot
of people’s latter, if there is no earthquake suddenly happened
and turned to be a huge loss there will not be any worry and
concerns about losing more of peoples. And that’s why we
have our brain to start thinking why it happened, how it
happened, what should we do.
X. REFERENCE
[1] From Research to Commercial Operations: The Next
Generation Easy-to-Deploy (ETD) Tsunami Assessment
Buoy, by R.A. Lawson et al
[2] Real-Time Deep-Ocean Tsunami Measuring,
Monitoring, and Reporting System: The NOAA DART II
Description and Disclosure, by Christian Meinig et al