About InaTSPIntroductionDuring the ICG meeting in Mombassa, Kenya 28 February - 2 March 2007, the National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) of Indonesia proposed to provide alert services to the member states of IOTWS as one of Tsunami Watch Provider (TSPs) along with India, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Iran. We have been working together under the coordination of IOC/ICG-UNESCO in the group of IOTWS starting with the arrangement of requirements, interoperability schedule of work and finally looking at the implementation. While we worked at the implementation, PTWC and JMA voluntarily provided the service to all NTWCs in Indian Ocean Region as an Interim Advisory Service (IAS). In that period of time, TSPs shadow the operation of IAS and provided service level 1 (earthquake information) until RTSPs are ready to provide full services of level 1 and 2.
Figure 1. Area of Responsibility of TSPThe progress of implementation has been reported by TSPs in every meeting, mainly in ICG meetings. The agreement has been met at ICG meeting that in the year 2011, TSPs of Australia, India and Indonesia are ready to provide service level 2. However, all TSPs are requested to provide a guideline of TSP products for NTWC as a reference to NTWC decision making in case of a tsunami threat.
TSP of Indonesia is operated by BMKG (the Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics) the leading institution and in charge of operating InaTEWS (Indonesia Tsunami early Warning System) in cooperation with BAKOSURTANAL and BPPT. The monitoring systems consist of seismic, tide gauge, GPS and Buoy networks, operated by BMKG, BAKOSURTANAL (National Coordinating Agency for Survey and Mapping) and BPPT (Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology), respectively. All data are transmitted in real-time or near real-time to BMKG which is operating of InaTEWS for the purpose of forecasting tsunami hazard analysis and warning dissemination.
The TSP products are delivered through a number of communications media. Notification messages are sent to NTWCs when TSP bulletins are issued, via WMO Global Telecommunication System (GTS), e-mail, SMS and fax. The notification messages do not contain bulletin content, since the information is not intended for public dissemination.
Notification messages distributed through the GTS require identifiers in a specific format. For tsunami messages in the Indian Ocean the defined identifier is WEIO22.
TSP bulletins with detailed threat information will be distributed to NTWCs and will be available on password-protected websites maintained by each TSP.
Maps and other graphical representation of TSP information may be made available to NTWCs on password-protected websites maintained by each TSP. Examples of TSP-Indonesia's web pages for NTWC use are shown in Appendix 3.
Anymore detailed country-specific information or products must be arranged through bilateral agreement between the country requiring the service and an individual TSP.
Figure 2. InaTSP Dissemination Diagram
Figure 3. Dissemination System from TSPs & NTWCs PerspectiveTSP-Indonesia will issue bulletin when an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 or greater (Mwp) is detected under the sea in ASEAN countries, Nicobar Islands and Papua New Guinea (PNG), or Pacific Ocean. The ICG-IOTEWS has agreed that all RTSPs will provide the following four types of Bulletin for National Tsunami warning Centres:
- Bulletins providing details of undersea earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or greater (Mwp) (referred to as Bulletin type 1)
- Bulletins providing an initial forecast of tsunami threat, including details such as ETA and ETH for each coastal forecast zones under the threat (referred to as Bulletin type 2).
- Bulletins providing update forecasts of tsunami threat, plus information on observed sea-level anomalies (referred to as Bulletin type 3)
- Bulletins providing information on the finalization of the tsunami threat (referred to as Bulletin type 4)
The specific information contained in each type of bulletin comprises of:
Bulletin type 1 - Earthquake Bulletin
Bulletin type 2 - Tsunami Forecast
Bulletin type 3 - Tsunami Forecast and Observations
Bulletin type 4 - Tsunami Service Finalization
for detail information about this bulletin type see: TSP Indonesia user manual
The above products for NTWCs are not intended for public dissemination. Public products from TSPs will be limited to earthquake parameters and summaries of warnings issued by NTWCs around the Indian Ocean during tsunami event. These summaries will be collated from information provided by NTWCs, and will be made available on an Indian Ocean warning summary webpage.
Public information on tsunami events in the Indian Ocean will be restricted to earthquake details, sea-level observation and a summary of national warning status (as advised by NTWCs to RTSP Indonesia). This information will be available at: http://rtsp.bmkg.go.id , click on InaTSP Public Bulletin menu.
