NASA And France Successfully Monitor Russia's Tsunami With SWOT Satellite

Illustration of the occurrence of a tsunami (photo: dock. NOAA)

JAKARTA NASA and the French Space Agency (CNES) managed to record the tsunami trigger that occurred in Russia on July 30. This recording is supported by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite.

The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake measuring 8.8 on the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The satellite, which is the result of NASA and CNES collaboration, also recorded a tsunami wave about 70 minutes after the earthquake occurred.

According to SWOT data, the tsunami was triggered by large-power earthquakes or landslides under the sea. This incident caused the entire sea water column to move from the ground to the surface to produce a wave of diffuse water.

NASA likens this phenomenon to pebbles falling into the pool and creating a series of waves, only on a larger scale. Tsunami events like this are so dangerous that observations with satellites are the right action.

SWOT data provides a multidimensional picture of tsunami waves triggered by the Kamchatka earthquake. The measurement results show that the wave height is more than 45 centimeters.

"The 4.5 meter high wave may seem trivial, but the tsunami is a spreading wave," said Ben Hamlington, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Oceanography Expert (JPL). "A wave that may only be as high as 30cm in the high seas could become waves as high as 9 meters in shallow waters on the coast."

SWOT data that includes height, shape, and wave direction really helps monitoring agencies from various parts of the world, including NOAA. With this data, they can perfect the forecast model and provide a timely warning.

This warning is important, especially for people who live in the tsunami. NOAA Central Chief Scientist Vasily Titov said he was proud of the results of SWOT data collection. The reason is, this data can help the country in avoiding a large tsunami like what happened in Aceh in 2024.

"The results show that SWOT data can significantly increase the operational tsunami forecast of an ability sought since the 2004 Sumatra earthquake," said Titov.