Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Image A pre-computed image of a tsunami from the Alaskan-Aleutian source region.

Media Credit: Courtesy Image Cheung

          An opportunity for impacting the scientific world of natural disasters arose not only for Kwok Fai Cheung, but also for his students. This opportunity presented itself in 1999, when the Hawai‘i State Civil Defense Agency was willing to fund research on improving tsunami forecasting predictability.
          "I was originally interested in computer modeling for ocean waves," said Cheung, professor of oceanography at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. "But when I heard about the grant, I applied for it and that's how it started."
          The grant for the Tsunami Forecast and Inundation Map for Hawai‘i was funded by the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program via a Memorandum of Agreement between the Hawai‘i State Civil Defense Agency and the University of Hawai‘i. A total of $294,937 was raised between 2004 and 2006.
          "The UH sea grant was from a funding agency under NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and with that, I used some of the funding to support the graduate students," Cheung said. "It's like a half-time job working on the model."
          The tsunami forecasting model itself involves pre-calculated events that a computer program stores in a database. These pre-calculated events, in addition to the water level data near the source and other factors, are used to construct or reconstruct an actual tsunami.
          "From knowing the seismic activity of Alaska, we then can divide the area into 41 sub-faults and use a computer program to calculate the tsunamis due to unit deformation," Cheung explained. "Even if you don't know where the tsunami is coming from, you can determine it just by checking the water level near the source and look at the database with the tsunami events and try to reconstruct it."
          According to Cheung, the tsunami forecasting capability has improved over the past 10 years, and now there is the ability to calculate the conditions of the water level data near the source.
          "The earthquake that happened in Peru a couple of weeks ago is a good example," he said. "A tsunami watch was made, however, by using a similar method to the one that I developed in 2001, they were able to predict that the wave height was minimal, and so they canceled the tsunami watch."
          In addition to Cheung, four students so far have been able to receive funding support through their involvement with the tsunami model.
          "We started off with my idea, but my graduate students did most of the work under my guidance," Cheung said.
          These four students include Yong Wei, Yoshiki Yamazaki, Alejandro Sanchez and Shailesh Namakar, who is currently working with Cheung. The original method of the tsunami forecasting method was completed in 2001 with Yong Wei; however, Sanchez made significant improvements to the model in 2007.
          Cheung was a co-principal investigator for the development of the tsunami system at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in 2004. He participated in the initial stages of the warning system development. Currently he is developing a model to also predict hurricanes, such as recent Hurricane Flossie. This current model under development is different, as it simulates hurricane waves, swell and wind waves for the entire Pacific Basic and the Hawaiian Islands.
          Cheung only hopes to further progress the model and additional projects by way of UH Mānoa.
          "If students want to be involved, the only requirement is that they are a graduate student in the department and that they are interested in computer modeling," Cheung said. "This year there are already 19 graduate research students."

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