MSM Ocean and Sonardyne partner on tsunami early warning system

The two companies can now jointly provide at-risk coastal nations with a single source of supply of tsunami early warning systems.

The agreement combines MSM Ocean’s expertise in oceanographic measurement buoys, on-board data processing and telecommunications and Sonardyne’s highly precise deep water pressure measurement and acoustic through-water telemetry capabilities.

Together, these allow minute changes in deep water pressure at the seafloor that indicate a tsunami to be reliably detected, triggering a direct alert to national emergency organisations via acoustic and satellite communications, all within seconds.

The tsunami early warning system is fully International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) compliant and can be deployed in areas of up to 7,000 m water depth.

Through the teaming agreement, MSM Ocean and Sonardyne have also agreed to explore further possibilities for combining their technologies in support of remotely connecting ocean scientists to their instruments on the seafloor via buoys.

Sonardyne has been supplying integrated Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPRs) configured for deep water tsunami detection to organisations around the world since 2007. Combining precise sensing, long-life battery and reliable communications in one easy to deploy and recover instrument, they were developed following the devasting 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. For the past decade, these have been integrated into MSM Ocean’s buoy-based Tsunami Early Warning Systems, which have been successfully installed along the Pacific coast of South America.