The role of tsunami buoy played in tsunami warning and its application in South China Sea

The tsunami was a sudden marine disasters. Tsunami waves can quickly spread to near-shore and cause the disaster after the tsunami. So it is very important of timely monitoring and early warning of the tsunami. After several unsuccessful tsunami forecasting, the United States developed tsunami buoy specifically for the early detection of tsunami waves. Tsunami buoy can not only be able to display occurrence of the tsunami, it is real time data but also be assimilated into the tsunami warning system, to improve the accuracy of the tsunami forecasting. Several tsunami events in the recent few years have proven the important role of the tsunami buoys. Subsequently, the tsunami warning system based on tsunami buoys was into regular operation. The system accurately predicted the results on March 11, 2011 Japan tsunami event. State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China also deployed 2 tsunami buoys in the South China Sea (SCS), which also played an important role in the warning process of Japan tsunami on March 11, 2011. National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center/State Oceanic Administration (NMEFC/SOA) will collaborate with Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (PMEL/NOAA) to develop assimilation method making use of real time data of tsunami buoy and build a forecasting system in SCS in the future. (C) 2013 The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.