Caribe Wave: A Decade of Tsunami Exercises for Validating the Tsunami Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions
Description:
Annual tsunami exercises are crucial to validating the Tsunami Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions. Every year in March, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Coordination Group for Tsunamis and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (ICG CARIBE/EWS) conducts the CARIBE WAVE exercise. Since 2011, the exercises have helped identify the strengths and gaps at the regional, national, and local levels. The exercise provides one or more hypothetical tsunami sources defined through a collaborative effort between seismic, volcano and tsunami experts from the CARIBE EWS using historical data, scientific research, and numerical modeling of tsunami inundation to highlight potential areas at risk. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), the designated regional Tsunami Service Provider (TSP), and more recently, the Central America Tsunami Advisory Center (CATAC), a proposed TSP, develop the simulated text and graphical products for the corresponding tsunami sources. Each of the 48 Member States and Territories then decides which scenario it will use for its national activities. On the day of the exercise, the PTWC issues a test message through all the channels it would use for a real event to test communication systems. The simulated products are disseminated only to the Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFPs) and National Tsunami Warning Centers (NTWCs). Each Member State and Territory is responsible for determining further actions, like issuing simulated tsunami alerts in their area of authority. CARIBE WAVE provides a framework for TWFPs, NTWCs, and Emergency Management Organizations to test their operational lines of communication, practice their emergency response plans, and promote tsunami awareness. Consequently, considerable advances in tsunami products and preparedness were achieved. This presentation will review the history and results of the exercises, which have activated hundreds of thousands of people throughout the region over the past decade.
Session: The Future of Tsunami Science, Preparedness and Response
Type: Oral
Date: 4/19/2023
Presentation Time: 05:15 PM (local time)
Presenting Author: Stephanie Soto
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Authors
Stephanie Soto Presenting Author Corresponding Author stephanie.soto@noaa.gov Caribbean Office International Tsunami Information Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade christa.vonh@noaa.gov Caribbean Office International Tsunami Information Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
Elizabeth Vanacore elizabeth.vanacore@upr.edu University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez |
Alison Brome a.brome@unesco.org Caribbean Tsunami Information Center |
Silvia Chacon silviach@una.ac.cr SINAMOT, Universidad Nacional Costa Rica |
Bernardo Aliaga b.aliaga@unesco.org Tsunami Program, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO |
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Caribe Wave: A Decade of Tsunami Exercises for Validating the Tsunami Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions
Category
The Future of Tsunami Science, Preparedness and Response