Japan is prone to earth quakes and had witnessed many worst hit tragedies in the past. Gained experience from past events and in order to take preventive action to save its citizens, Japan has been investing in its research facilities to get more advanced technologies to monitor earth quake, Tsunami and similar natural disasters.
As a measure to monitor natural disasters, Japan’s Meteorological Agency abbreviated as JMA has begun laying a fiber-optic cable under the Pacific Ocean. Generally Fiber Optic cables are deployed for high data transmission and supreme quality voice channels. Japan will not use this undersea fiber optic cables for telecommunications. The cable will be part of an advanced monitoring and alert system that could provide warning before a destructive earthquake hit the shores of Japan.
In the past the mainly the south east asian and far east Asian countries had bad experience with Tsunami. One of the major reasons for these destructive tidal waves was the undersea earthquakes. Undersea tidal waves possess much more energy that normal waves. Japan has been hit by killer tsunami waves in the past. The worst series of tsunami waves were those that occurred in December 2004 that followed an earthquake near another island nation, Indonesia.
The new monitoring system with fiber cable extends 220 kilometers from the south coast of Japan near Shizuoka prefecture. Shizuoka prefecture has long been marked by seismologists for having a significant chance of a major earthquake.
Along with the cable there are nine large pods. Each around 2 meters long and approx. 26 cm wide. The pods were developed by NEC as part of the project. Out of these nine pods, five pods are earthquake sensors, three pods are tsunami sensors and the last pod handles signal relay from the far end of the cable back to shore. From the shore the signals are sent to data processing centers in Tokyo and Osaka. Since the two cities are several hundred kilometers apart, even if one got affected by an earthquake, the other should keep running. Data from the pods can be used to determine the location and size of undersea earthquakes and the possibility of a tidal wave.
As Japan is one of the most seismically active nations, it has a highly sophisticated earthquake monitoring and reporting systems. Typically the size and intensity of a quake is announced by the JMA and flashed over Television screens within 2 or 3 minutes of its occurrence. An important integral part of this reporting system is that it predicts the possibility of tidal waves.
A more recent innovation is an early-warning system that seeks to provide notice seconds in advance of strong quakes. The system monitors the fast moving but weak primary waves to quickly determine the approximate location and intensity of a quake and attempts to get out a warning in advance of the more destructive secondary waves.
Recently the warning system provided about 13 seconds warning of a strong quake to the 1 million residents of Sendai city in northern Japan. The warning system can't yet provide alerts fast enough to those very close to the epicenter but it's still in its early days having started operation last October.
The new cable is being laid by the Subaru. It is a ship owned by Japanese telecom provider NTT. This ship is specifically built for this job. It set sail from Yokohama port on the first week of July. Before the ship started its journey the reporters were allowed on-board to observe the functionality of the ship.
Fiber Optic Cable was in a large circular storage area that is several stories high in the center of the ship. This time the circular storage contained only 220 kilometers of fiber optic cable for the new cable system. But the storage is capable of storing up to 5,000 kilometers. Just like pulling a piece of string from the center of a ball, the cable is pulled up to the deck level of the ship and then through a series of pulleys and wheels before disappearing over the back of the boat and into the ocean.
In the deep ocean the fiber optic cable sits on the seabed. Near to land a trench needs to be dug so the fiber optic cable lays under the surface for protection. Once the installation is over, the system will provide advanced features for seismologists to predict earthquakes and killer waves. Fiber optics not just limited to voice or internet communication in Japan !
As a measure to monitor natural disasters, Japan’s Meteorological Agency abbreviated as JMA has begun laying a fiber-optic cable under the Pacific Ocean. Generally Fiber Optic cables are deployed for high data transmission and supreme quality voice channels. Japan will not use this undersea fiber optic cables for telecommunications. The cable will be part of an advanced monitoring and alert system that could provide warning before a destructive earthquake hit the shores of Japan.
In the past the mainly the south east asian and far east Asian countries had bad experience with Tsunami. One of the major reasons for these destructive tidal waves was the undersea earthquakes. Undersea tidal waves possess much more energy that normal waves. Japan has been hit by killer tsunami waves in the past. The worst series of tsunami waves were those that occurred in December 2004 that followed an earthquake near another island nation, Indonesia.
The new monitoring system with fiber cable extends 220 kilometers from the south coast of Japan near Shizuoka prefecture. Shizuoka prefecture has long been marked by seismologists for having a significant chance of a major earthquake.
Along with the cable there are nine large pods. Each around 2 meters long and approx. 26 cm wide. The pods were developed by NEC as part of the project. Out of these nine pods, five pods are earthquake sensors, three pods are tsunami sensors and the last pod handles signal relay from the far end of the cable back to shore. From the shore the signals are sent to data processing centers in Tokyo and Osaka. Since the two cities are several hundred kilometers apart, even if one got affected by an earthquake, the other should keep running. Data from the pods can be used to determine the location and size of undersea earthquakes and the possibility of a tidal wave.
As Japan is one of the most seismically active nations, it has a highly sophisticated earthquake monitoring and reporting systems. Typically the size and intensity of a quake is announced by the JMA and flashed over Television screens within 2 or 3 minutes of its occurrence. An important integral part of this reporting system is that it predicts the possibility of tidal waves.
A more recent innovation is an early-warning system that seeks to provide notice seconds in advance of strong quakes. The system monitors the fast moving but weak primary waves to quickly determine the approximate location and intensity of a quake and attempts to get out a warning in advance of the more destructive secondary waves.
Recently the warning system provided about 13 seconds warning of a strong quake to the 1 million residents of Sendai city in northern Japan. The warning system can't yet provide alerts fast enough to those very close to the epicenter but it's still in its early days having started operation last October.
The new cable is being laid by the Subaru. It is a ship owned by Japanese telecom provider NTT. This ship is specifically built for this job. It set sail from Yokohama port on the first week of July. Before the ship started its journey the reporters were allowed on-board to observe the functionality of the ship.
Fiber Optic Cable was in a large circular storage area that is several stories high in the center of the ship. This time the circular storage contained only 220 kilometers of fiber optic cable for the new cable system. But the storage is capable of storing up to 5,000 kilometers. Just like pulling a piece of string from the center of a ball, the cable is pulled up to the deck level of the ship and then through a series of pulleys and wheels before disappearing over the back of the boat and into the ocean.
In the deep ocean the fiber optic cable sits on the seabed. Near to land a trench needs to be dug so the fiber optic cable lays under the surface for protection. Once the installation is over, the system will provide advanced features for seismologists to predict earthquakes and killer waves. Fiber optics not just limited to voice or internet communication in Japan !
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!