Stanford News spoke with Eric Dunham, an associate professor of geophysics at Stanford Earth, and Ph.D. student Yuyun Yang about their new method designed specifically for local early tsunami warnings. This study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, optimizes prediction models to make more reliable forecasts and can therefore be issued to coastal residents earlier in the event of a destructive tsunami.
"As a tsunami wave moves through the ocean, it changes pressure throughout the water column. Our method reconstructs the ocean surface and estimates wave heights based on pressure detected by offshore sensors as the tsunami passes by," Yang says, "Our forecasts begin to stabilize within a few minutes. This leaves 10 to 20 minutes for governmental agencies to issue warnings and residents to evacuate."
