Tsunami Early Warning System

After describing the progress made so far, scientists from the Potsdam-based Geo Research Center said they are confident a robust warning system for the area will be up and running in 2008.

"We are very well in the plan and the timetable to finish the technical installation in 2008, and then we will have another two years of joint operation of the system with our Indonesian colleagues," Jörn Lauterjung, the early warning system's project coordinator in Germany, said on Wednesday.

Berlin had earmarked 45 million euros ($59.4 million) for the scheme, which incorporates top-notch technology developed by German scientists. Organizers said they expect Indonesia to run and pay for the system to warn locals of future killer waves by 2010.

Faster and more accurate than US system

After initial problems in coordination, the system is now capable of evaluating whether an underwater earthquake will produce a tsunami in five minutes, said Rolf Emmermann, head of the consortium of researchers behind the system, adding that he wants to cut that span down to three minutes.

Thomas Rachel, an under-secretary in the German ministry for education and research, described the whole network of equipment as a multi-layer system that would be the most reliable ever developed.

"Seismometers, buoys with ocean-floor pressure sensors and ground positioning units all work together to form a perfect match for the early warning system," he said. "The collected information is transferred to a data collection center in real time so that reliable simulations for earthquake scenarios can be made."

Researchers said the project's accuracy and speed of reporting would make the German system superior to an existing US model in the Pacific. But Jörn Lauterjung added that accuracy isn't all that counts, saying it is equally important that warnings reach locals early enough for them to react.

"A major challenge we have in Indonesia is that we have very short early warning times," he said. "The earthquakes are very near to the coastline of Indonesia, and we have to do a lot of training and a lot of educating for the people in Indonesia so that they can react properly to warning messages and so they know how to act if a warning comes."

New radio broadcasting system planned

While the German scientists add more GPS-fitted buoys and ocean sensors to the network, others are training local authorities and institutions in how to react on tsunami warnings.

2wcom, a private company in the northern German town of Flensburg, is adapting a system of European radio signals that will be capable of breaking into radio programming to broadcast the tsunami warnings and keep the population informed about imminent danger. The signal does assume people have radio not yet commonly available in the region, though a company official said they would cost between $40 and $60 and could be cheaper if mass-produced.

A test of the early warning system will be performed next week on the catastrophe's anniversary in Bali with a second planned later in 2007 on Sumatra.