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November 2005

Satellite Radio Could Globalize Tsunami Warning

By Grace Jean

Raytheon has developed a communications network that could transmit emergency warnings to satellite-radio receivers around the globe, according to a company representative.

The network, called Mobile Enhanced Situational Awareness (MESA), was designed as a warning system for tsunamis and other emergencies, says Frank R. Prautzsch, director of business development at Raytheon Network Center Systems.

Prautzsch says MESA offers more advanced capabilities than other tsunami-alert systems currently deployed. “There are some good systems out there, but most of them operate a regional service, or are a patchwork quilt of capabilities. There isn’t anything that stitches everything together,” he says.

The communications technology used in MESA is commercial satellite radio—XM in the United States and WorldSpace in Europe and Asia.

The system works as follows: a network of sensors, buried in the ocean floor, detects an event and then sends the data to a tsunami warning center. From there, a warning would be broadcast to XM radio receivers.

Tectonic plates by nature shift in elevation when there is an event, explains Prautzsch. The sensors, or sonobuoys, are buried in the ocean floor to put them in a better position to detect tectonic plate shifts over large areas, he says.

The sonobuoys would be dormant until an event occurred, at which time the sensors would surface and report it. When sensors reach the surface, radio frequency ID tags embedded in them would become activated, broadcasting the precise location of the sonobuoy in the event of a tectonic plate shift.

Keeping the sensors deep in the ocean floor extends their battery life and protects them from rough seas, he says. “The sea is a difficult environment. Sea state 6 for a sonobuoy is a real experience,” says Prautzsch.

Raytheon operates a prototype MESA broadcast center in Singapore for regional services. “We are looking to expand those features, or tailor those features for various governments,” says Prautzsch.

Every hotel along the beach in Thailand, for example, could have a receiver, says Prautzsch.

He declined to provide any cost estimates for the MESA system. The reliance on XM satellites and inexpensive commercial receivers helps keep the costs down, he says.

The company has yet to find customers for this technology. “We have groomed the concept, explored how to do this. There are perhaps experiments that need to be done,” says Prautzsch. “What’s really needed is the will of various nations to step forward. We need collective involvement to deal with international open waters, not just their own shorelines.”

The same technology also is being marketed to the Department of Homeland Security as a warning system for any type of emergency.

“MESA is the only system that can be implemented without relying on cell towers … I can hot-wire the United States literally overnight,” he said.

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