Biden Administration Provides $30M to Strengthen DART System

The Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced this week an award of $30 million to modernize the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) Ocean Observing System.

DART was developed to forecast and detect tsunamis along coastlines. The system can detect when a tsunami is present and then — using data from a pressure sensor on the ocean floor — will report the information back to the National Weather Service’s Tsunami Warning Centers to allow warnings and watches to be orchestrated.

“The Biden-Harris administration is making sure NOAA has the resources and technology needed to track tsunamis and warn coastal communities of threats,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this $30 million investment will modernize NOAA’s DART network to improve real-time tsunami forecasts and alerts in order to save lives and keep coastal communities safe.”

The Science Applications International Corporation, the recipient of the funding, will start to develop more modern equipment to replace existing equipment on the DART system, which is 20 years old. New systems will make data more available and reliable and thus improve forecasting intensity and times.