West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

Operations Manual

NOAA/NWS/WCATWC

910 South Felton Street

Palmer, Alaska 99645

Section 1.1: NOAA Tsunami Warning Center Mission

Last Updated: 9/2007

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NOAA’s tsunami mission is to provide reliable tsunami detection, forecasts and warnings, and to promote community resilience.

The primary operational warning system objectives for carrying out this mission are to rapidly locate, size, and otherwise characterize major earthquakes, determine their tsunamigenic potential, predict tsunami arrival times, predict coastal runup when possible, and disseminate appropriate warning and informational products based on this information.

NOAA operates two tsunami warning centers in the United States: the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and the Richard H. Hagemeyer Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center area-of-responsibility (AOR) consists of Canadian coastal regions, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the ocean coasts of all U.S. States except Hawaii (Figure 1). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center AOR consists of Hawaii, other U.S. interests in the Pacific Basin, countries participating in the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific, and Indian Ocean and Caribbean Sea countries.

Figure 1. TWC Areas-of-responsibility.

Further details on administrative aspects of the NOAA/National Weather Service Tsunami Warning System can be found in the National Weather Service directives and instructions (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/sym/pd01007curr.pdf and http://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/sym/pd01007001curr.pdf).