SURVEYING FEASIBILITY OF DETECTING TSUNAMI BY THE USE … · 2017-01-02 · severe disorders in seas and oceans is tsunami. The word tsunami #U# or harbor wave is the Japanese equivalent

VOL. 5, NO. 1, JUNE 2016 ISSN 2305-493X

ARPN Journal of Earth Sciences

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40

SURVEYING FEASIBILITY OF DETECTING TSUNAMI BY THE

USE OF SATELLITE ALTIMETRY DATA

Seyyed Rouhollah Emadi1 and Mehrdad Sabzevari

2

1Department of Surveying Engineering, IAU-South Tehran Branch, Iran 2Department of Civil Engineering-Earthquake, Shakhes Pajouh Research Institute, Iran

E-Mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

In this research tsunami waves caused by two severe earthquakes in December 2004 Sumatra and 11/03/2011

Japan are detected and observed by the use of satellite altimetry. Due to its severity and the extent of the affected area,

Sumatra tsunami was the first tsunami detected by 4 altimetry satellites of TOPEX, JASON1, ENVISAT and GFO.

Numerical surveys show that JASON1 satellite has detected the tsunami waves one hour and fifty three minutes after the

earthquake in 129 passage number in geographical zone of − < φ < 0 with amplitude of more than 1.5 meters in two

areas. Also after three hours and nineteen minutes in 352 passage number, ENVISAT satellite has detected the tsunami

waves in geographical zone − < φ < − in around 40 centimeters. T/P satellite has also observed the tsunami waves

one hour and fifty three minutes after the earthquake in 129 passage number in geographical zone − < φ < 5 in around

60 centimeters. Also Japan tsunami has been detected by JASON1 satellite seven hours and 30 minutes after the

earthquake in 147 passage number. Calculation results show the amplitude of waves of this tsunami in 7 degrees north

latitude to be around 60 centimeters.

Keywords: tsunami, satellite altimetry, tide, earthquake, tectonic plates.

INTRODUCTION

Oceans are suppliers of food and minerals and

they also adjust the weather on Earth. These beauties of

life sometimes appear as our worst and most dangerous

enemies. One of the natural disasters being created from

severe disorders in seas and oceans is tsunami. The word

tsunami 津波 or harbor wave is the Japanese equivalent

for water quake consisting of two phrases of津(tsu) which

means harbor and 波 (name) which means wave and

nowadays it is globally called with this name. Short-range

waves (around a few centimeters) and longwave move

from the source of tsunami creation in different directions

and after reaching the shallow coastal areas they turn into

waves with long range (around 20 meters) and shortwave.

Collision of these waves with coastal areas results in

severe casualties.

History of occurrence of tsunami dates back to

many years ago, and by the use of surveying historical

texts and archaeological studies it is possible to name

many important tsunamis such as the tsunami that

happened in Lisbon, Portugal on November the 1st 1755.

Among these cases, 4 tsunamis are more important

because of the severity of earthquake, and the amount of

casualties which are mentioned here in order of

occurrence. On August 27th

1883 the explosion of

Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia resulted in creation of the

first popular tsunami in the world (Symons, 1888; Choi et

al., 2003; Pelinovsky, 2005). On May 22nd

1960 the

tsunami in Chile as one of the most destructive tsunamis

of the Pacific Ocean was named as the second global

tsunami (Berkman and Symons, 1960). The most

disastrous and destructive tsunami was the 3rd

global

tsunami that happened on December 26th

2004 in coastal

areas of the Indian Ocean. Waves resulted from this

tsunami attacked the coasts of 12 countries including

Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, India, Sri

Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania

and South Africa. This tsunami resulted in killing around

230,000 people and injuring around 283,000 people from

60 different countries and a number of which were

tourists. This number is only examples of damages of

tsunamis (Austin and Okal, 2005), (Titov et al., 2005),

(Rabinovich& Thomson, 2007). The fatal effects of this

tsunami are also observable in around 8000 kilometers

from the center of earthquake which is the coasts of South

Africa. The 4th

tsunami is the earthquake and tsunami of

Tohoku, Japan on March 11th

2011; the power of this

earthquake was 9.03 Richter at 14:46 local time near

Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture in northeast of Japan. The

surface center of earthquake was in 130 km east of

Oshika-hantō, Tohoku dist. with a depth of 24 kilometers.

This earthquake has resulted in a tsunami warning all

around coastal areas of Japan near the Pacific Ocean and

evacuating them. This warning was also stated in 20

coastal areas of South America and North America. As a

result of this earthquake the tsunami waves collided with

the coasts of Japan with a height around 15 meters. This

earthquake resulted in many damages such as destructing

roads, railways and firing in some parts of japan. Around

4.4million families in northeast of japan had no electricity

and 4.1 million families had no water. A number of

electrical generators went out of order and at least three

nuclear reactors exploded because of accumulation of

hydrogen gas. Primary evaluations by the international air

center estimated that that the insurance for the destructed

areas is around 14.5 to 34.6 billion dollars. 15839 people

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were killed, 3642 people were lost and 5950 people were

injured. Estimations show that Tohoku earthquake was the

most powerful earthquake in japan and the 5th

one since

the beginning of recording the intensity of earthquakes in

1900. Due to the massive dimension of the casualties of

this tsunami the Japanese government officially called this

tsunami as the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Reasons for creation of Tsunami

Several factors result in creation of tsunami;

some of these reasons are stated below:

1. Earthquake in the seabed, 2. Landslides on the seabed,

3. Volcano eruption in offshore areas, 4. Severe tornadoes

in offshore areas, 5. Meteorite colliding with water

surface.

In below figure the general scheme of main

reasons of tsunami creation is brought.

Figure-1. Different reasons of tsunami creation.

Among the mentioned factors, earthquake in the

seabed creates around 82% of tsunamis and then

landslides on seabed creates 6% of tsunamis and then

volcano eruption creates 5% of tsunamis and they are the

most important factors of tsunami creation. The remaining

7% is also related to other factors such meteorite impact,

gas emission from the seabed and etc.

Tsunamis are usually created in areas called fire

chain and they are usually located around the wall of

Pacific Ocean where the border of Pacific Ocean is. The

plate of Pacific Ocean is surrounded by a zone that has

heavy activity in the Earth’s crust and it includes ocean’s deep hole, volcanic islands and/or the volcanic mountain

chain and many areas coming out of the water. Frequent

earthquakes and volcanic eruptions create a wall on

Pacific Ocean’s plate which is geologically an active area on earth. Figure 2 specifically shows the mentioned area.

More than 75% of all tsunamis happen in Pacific Ocean.

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Figure-2. Place of occurrence of huge earthquakes from 1973 to 2011.

Speed of tsunami waves depends on depth of

water and height of waves. In oceans and seas with a

depth of more than 6000 meters waves could reach a

speed equivalent of 800 km/h. the speed of waves in low

depth areas decreases. The form of coastal line, the shape

of ocean floor and the feature of wave advance play

important roles in its degradation power. Narrow coasts

and openings could result in navigating and intensifying

the primary waves and the following waves. The moment

they collide with a coast the waves go back and come back

to the coast as a series of waves; thus each tsunami creates

several waves that could continuously appear after the

production of the first wave.

Using satellite altimetry data

Up to now studying waves in coasts by the use of

tide gauge data for surveying tsunamis has been a

common method. For example Nagarajan et al (2006) has

studied tide gauge data in different coasts and have shown

that the amplitude of Sumatra tsunami waves reach up to 2

meters in the coast of Kenya. By creation of satellite

altimetry method regarding the high density and

homogeneity of observations, using satellite altimetry data

became common for modeling and detecting big tsunamis

and even analyzing tides. The most important advantage

of using altimetry satellite observations is that this data

provide the possibility of surveying and studying tsunami

waves in oceans and areas away from the coast. The

possibility of observing a tsunami by satellite altimetry is

very little because for this the satellite must be exactly on

top of the place of tsunami and at the time of its

occurrence and due to high speed of tsunami it happens

rarely. Okal et al (1999) used TOPEX satellite data and

observed Nicaragua tsunami in 1992. Regarding the 8-

centimeter amplitude of waves and the error in satellite

data, this method was not used commonly. After the

Sumatra tsunami in 2004, regarding the severity and span

of this tsunami the satellite altimetry data was welcomed

again. Smith et al (2005) used data of four satellites of

TOPEX, JASON1, GFO and ENVISAT for achieving the

changes of sea surface after the Sumatra earthquake in

2004 and they compared the results with MOST model.

Tony et al (2005) used the amount of achieved changes

from water surface by use of satellite altimetry data and

inversed methods for achieving the parameters of Sumatra

fault; also the sensitivity of each of parameters in change

of water surface was surveyed. YatakaHanashi et al

(2011) surveyed and detected Chile tsunami in 2010 by

the use of altimetry satellite data. Surveys showed that due

to small amplitude of tsunami waves during the time the

satellite was passing, detecting the amplitude of tsunami

waves is impossible with this method.

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Figure-3. Observing and detecting tsunami by the use of satellite altimetry data.

Foundation of satellite altimetry method

In fact the altimetry satellites detect the distance

of satellite from the surface of oceans through measuring

and evaluating the round trip of satellite from the surface

of water; yet this is not the only way of measuring

conducted in this process and through altimeter it is

possible to reach much information. In fact altimeter sends

the radar wave and it surveys and evaluates the return

signal colliding with the surface. The main observational

quantity of satellite altimetry is moment height of satellite

mass from the surface of water which is called satellite

range. Satellite range is determined through measuring the

time needed for the signal to go and come back from the

satellite to the surface of water. Additionally, the height of

the surface is measurable through observing the range of

return signal and the shape of wave. Also it is possible to

measure the wind speed all over the ocean, dispersion

coefficient and surface roughness for most surfaces from

which the signal is reflected. If two frequencies are used

for altimetry, comparing the signals regarding the used

frequencies give interesting results. For reaching accuracy

of a few centimeters in a hundred kilometer amplitude

there is a need for very accurate knowledge about the

situation of the satellite. Thus several direction and

location systems are installed on the altimeter satellites.

Several factors such as steam, electrons in the atmosphere,

sea condition and other parameters result in disorders in

return of radar signal. In case of occurrence of disorder in

altimeter signal, it is possible to use support systems and a

few different frequencies or to use error modeling to

remove the problem. Thus altimetry requires a lot of

information; additionally, data process is an important part

of altimetry.

Satellite altimetry radar sends the signals with

high frequency to the earth and by receiving the waves

reflected from the water surface, the return time is

measured and regarding the speed of transmission of

electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere, the distance

between satellite and water surface is calculated. Yet

regarding the atmospheric effects, especially the steam or

ionization on the speed of electromagnetic waves it is

necessary to conduct corrections on the range.

Since the height of (hSat) satellite compared to the

reference ellipsoid is accessible through detecting the

position of satellite such as GPS system, it is possible to

reach the height of moment surface of water compared to

the reference ellipsoid in the observational point through

the following relationship:

),(),(),( RangehSSH sat

In the above mentioned relationship

SSH: the height of moment surface of sea water from

the reference ellipsoid

Range: height of satellite from moment surface of water

in observational point

In Figure-4 the quantities of satellite height,

geoid surface, satellite orbit, reference ellipsoid, water

surface topography and height of water surface from

reference ellipsoid are shown in a satellite altimetry

system.

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Figure-4. Displaying the main parameters of satellite altimetry.

In this article two renowned tsunamis of the

current decade have been detected by the use of satellite

altimetry data. The first stage is for calculating and

processing the altimetry satellite data for determining the

accurate quantity of height of water surface. Regarding the

emission of altimetry waves in atmosphere and effects of

different layers of atmosphere and especially troposphere

and ionosphere on electromagnetic waves the observations

must be corrected regarding these effects. Also other

factors such as tide effects, effect of atmospheric pressure,

the effects of sea level bios, device errors etc. must be

considered for detecting the height of water surface. After

applying the required corrections on the measured height

by the satellite, the corrected height of average sea level

could be achieved compared to the reference ellipsoid

through the following relationship:

( , ) , . ,SatCOSSH h Corrected Range

Radar altimetry measures the height of water

level with an accuracy of around 2 centimeters.

Anomaly of water level, SLA, is achieved

through the difference of corrected height of water level

and the average water level.

CONCLUSIONS

Indian Ocean tsunami occurred in December 26

2004 and it was observed by 4 altimetry satellites of

TOPEX/Posidon, JASON1, ENVISAT and GFO at the

time of occurrence of tsunami. Regarding the

unavailability of GFO satellite data, only three other

satellites were used in this research. JASON1 detected the

tsunami in 1 hour and fifty three minutes after the

occurrence of earthquake in 129 passage numbers and

geographical zone of − < � < with amplitude of

more than 1.5 meters in two areas. Also ENVISAT

detected the tsunami 3 hours and 19 minutes in 352

passage number in geographical zone of − < � < − with amplitude of around 40 centimeters. The T/P satellite

also detected the tsunami waves 1 hour and 53 minutes

after the occurrence of earthquake in 129 passage number

in geographical zone of − < � < 5 with amplitude of

around 60 centimeters. The wavelength of tsunami waves

measured by the satellite observations was around 460 km

and its average speed in deep oceanic areas was around

800km/h. Profile of anomaly fluctuations of water surface

of these satellites help us analyze the tsunami waves

regarding their modeling. Below figures show the

anomaly fluctuations of water surface compared to the

latitude for each of the satellites of JASON1, ENVISAT

and T/P. To this aim the anomaly fluctuations of water

surface in the passage the tsunami waves are detected and

the previous and next passages are compared.

Figure-5. Anomaly changes of water surface compared to

the latitude for JASON1, the first figure from the top, 129

passage in the period before the tsunami, 2nd

figure,

passage 129 in the tsunami occurrence cycle, and 3rd

figure passage 129 in the period after tsunami.

Above figure shows the anomaly changes of

water level in three periods. The first diagram shows the

changes of water level in 108 period and passage 129 and

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the third diagram shows the anomaly changes of water

surface in 110 period and passage 129. The time of

occurrence of tsunami is well detectable in the 2nd

diagram

which has happened in 109 period and passage 129.


latitude for ENVISAT, first figure from the top, passage

3522 in the cycle before the tsunami, the 2nd

figure

passage 352 in cycle during the tsunami and 3rd

figure

passage 352 in the cycle after the tsunami.

In this Figure the anomaly changes of water

surface are shown for ENVISAR, the first and last

diagrams show the sea anomaly before and after the

tsunami. Above figure shows period 32 and below figure

shows period 34 for the passage 352. The 2nd

figure shows

the sea level changes at the time of tsunami happening in

33 period and passage 352.


the latitude, for T/P sat, first figure from the top, passage

129 in cycle before tsunami, 2nd

figure passage 129 in the

cycle during tsunami and 3rd

figure passage 129 in cycle

after the tsunami.

As the above figure shows in period 451 for

passage 129 and 453 period for passage 129 which are

respectively the first and last diagrams, anomaly of water

level has very insignificant changes but in 452 period,

passage 129, tsunami waves are observable in 3 ° South

latitude.

Below figures show the passageway of three

satellites of JASON1, T/P and ENVISAT on top of the

area affected by tsunami.

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Figure-8. JASON1 direction, passage number 129 from Sumatra tsunami in 2004, 2 hours

before the earthquake.

Figure-9. Direction of ENVISAT with passage number 352 from Sumatra tsunami area in

2004, 3 hours after the earthquake.

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Figure-10. Direction of TOPEX sat with passage number 129 from Sumatra tsunami in

2004, 2 hours after the earthquake.

Japan tsunami that happened on March 11 2011

was also detected 7 hours and 30 minutes after the

occurrence of earthquake in geographical zone 5 < � < by the use of JASON1 altimetry satellite. Below Figure

shows the direction of JASON1 with passage number 147,

7 hours and 30 minutes after the earthquake.

Figure-11. Direction of JASON1 with passage number 147 from Japan earthquake area,

7 hours and 30 minutes after the earthquake.

Below figure shows anomaly changes of water

level compared to latitude in geographical zone < φ < 5 for periods of 337, 338 and 339 and passage number

147.

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Figure-12. Anomaly changes of water surface compared

to latitude for JASON1, first figure from the top, passage

147 in cycle before tsunami, 2nd

figure passage 147 in

cycle during tsunami and 3rd

Figure passage 147 in cycle

after tsunami.

Above Figure shows anomaly changes of water

levels in 3 consecutive periods. The first diagram shows

changes of water level in 337 period and passage 147, and

the 3rd

diagram shows anomaly changes of water levels in

339 period and passage 147. These two passages are the

tsunami detection places in 10 days before and after that.

Changes are observable with amplitude of around 60

centimeters in Latitude 7 ° north in 337 period and

passage 147.

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SURVEYING FEASIBILITY OF DETECTING TSUNAMI BY THE USE … · 2017-01-02 · severe disorders in seas and oceans is tsunami. The word tsunami #U# or harbor wave is the Japanese equivalent