Exercise Pacific Wave 20
Exercise Pacific Wave 2020: 1 SEPTEMBER to 30 NOVEMBER 2020
5 NOVEMBER 2020, 0000 UTC: Live Communication Test:
Tsunami Service Providers to Member State Tsunami Warning Focal Points and National Tsunami Warning Centers
11 NOVEMBER 2020: CATAC Regional Exercise
28 OCTOBER 2020, 1900 UTC: Informational Webinar I (Eastern Pacific)
29 OCTOBER 2020, 0300 UTC: Informational Webinar II (Western, Central Pacific)
1 NOVEMBER 2020: PacWave20 Exercise Evaluation Form open
10 NOVEMBER 2020: IOC Media Advisory
SEPTEMBER 2021: Regional, Country reports ** NEW **
At its 28th session (
ICG/PTWS-XXVIII, Barcelo Montilimar, Nicaragua, 2-5 April 2019), the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System approved the conduct of Exercise Pacific Wave 2020 (PacWave20) during the last Quarter of 2020 to support International Disaster Risk Reduction Day (13 October) and
World Tsunami Awareness Day (5 November). PacWave 20 will be the ninth Pacific Wave exercise which have been conducted regularly and biennially since 2006.
The
Objectives of PacWave20 are fourfold:
1. Test communications from the PTWS Tsunami Service Providers to Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFP) and National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWC) of Member States.
2. Test national communication and cooperation, and readiness within the country.
3. Test regional communication and cooperation between Member States.
4. Support the development of tsunami procedures and products by the Central America Tsunami Advisory Center (CATAC).
To meet the Objectives, PacWave20 will be conducted:
- As a series of regional exercises organized through the PTWS Regional Working Groups where applicable, with support from the PTWS Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs) and ITIC, involving all PTWS countries
- To include one live communications test from the PTWS TSPs to Member States on 5 November 2020.
- To include exercise activities over and above a table top exercise. Possible variations include:
- Conducting in real time during the daytime working hours with full staffing, or simulating minimal staff during night time or weekend hours
- Testing country capability to carry out their warning and response responsibilities for the situation where one or more PTWS TSPs is not able to provide guidance in a timely manner.
- Conducting the exercise down to the community level, including where possible including an extensive public awareness campaign.
For the ICG/PTWS, the approved TSPs are: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC, since 1965) hosted by USA NOAA, Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center (NWPTAC, since 2006) hosted by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC, since 2019) hosted by China's State Oceanic Administration (SOA). Under development is the Central America Tsunami Advisory Centre (CATAC) hosted by Nicaragua's INETER.
At the June 2020 PTWS Steering Committee meeting, the SC noted and reiterated the difficulty of conducting Exercise Pacific Wave 2020 as was originally planned in 2019 given the COVID-19 global situation, and recommended that PacWave20 only tests Objectives 1 and 4. Accordingly, PacWave20 will consist of:
1. TSP-to-TWFP and NTWC communication test on November 5, 2020; and
2. CATAC regional exercise.
Other activities are encouraged but are at the discretion of each country.
To enable country tsunami exercises, the ITIC and NOAA PMEL are making available TsuCAT (Tsunami Coastal Assessment Tool). TsuCAT provides access to a Pacific, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean database of tsunami modeling results from NOAA’s pre-computed catalog of sources and for the Pacific and Caribbean, the RIFT model, to assist a country in its tsunami hazard assessment, tsunami exercise and response planning, and warning decision-making. The tool allows countries to choose their own scenario and to generate the PTWC’s enhanced text and graphical products to use in their exercises. Version 4.0 was distributed at the ICG/PTWS-XXVIII (April 2019) (contact ITIC for v4.2, October 2020).
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Exercise Pacific Wave 2020 - IOC
- PacWave20 Exercise Task Team - Terms of Reference, Members, IOC ICG/PTWS-XXVIII.1, April 2019 (PDF, 24 KB)
- PacWave20 during COVID-19, Scope reduction, IOC ICG/PTWS Steering Comm, June 2020 (PDF, 89 KB)
- IOC Circular Letter 2812 (21 October 2020) (PDF, 350 KB)
- PacWave20 Overview (PPT) (29 Oct 2020) (PDF, 17 MB).
- IOC Media Advisory, CATAC Regional Exercise 10 Nov 2020 (PDF, 3.6 MB)
- PacWave2020 Summary Report (IOC TS 155, Vol. 2, final draft Sept 2021) (PDF, 4.0 MB)
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PacWave20 Exercise Manual (IOC TS 155 Vol.1, PDF, 711 KB)
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TSP Communication Test - Exercise Dummy Messages
- PTWC (TXT, 1 KB)
- NWPTAC (TXT, 1 KB)
- SCSTAC (TXT, 1 KB)
- CATAC (TXT, 1KB)
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PacWave20 Regional Exercise Information (format, conduct, scenario, messages/MSEL, Media)
- Central Pacific Pacific Coast (CA-PAC), CATAC Regional Exercise - 11 Nov 2020, see CATAC
- Southeast Pacific (SEP) - 22 Oct 2020
- Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICT) - TBD
- South China Sea (SCS) - TBD
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CATAC Products (For Member States of the CATAC Area of Responsibility only)
- CATAC Products Area of Service, Aug 2019 (draft 28 Mar 2019, PDF, KB)
- Users' Guide for the Central America Tsunami Advisory Centre (CATAC) (draft 28 Mar 2019, English PDF 1.1 MB, Spanish PDF 1.1 MB)
- CATAC Regional Exercise Manual (Ejercicio Tsunami-CA-19) 19 Aug 2019 (IOC TS 148 Vol 1, PDF, 1.7 MB)
- CATAC Regional Exercise Manual (Ejercicio Tsunami-CA-20) 11 Nov 2020 (28 October, Spanish) (IOC TS 156, PDF, 4.6 MB). ** NEW **
- IOC Circular Letter No. 2814, Operaciones de prueba del Centro de Asesoramiento sobre los Tsunamis de América Central (CATAC) y ejercicio de simulacro CATAC 20 el 11 de noviembre de 2020, como parte de PacWave20. Central America Tsunami Advisory Center (CATAC) trail operations and CATAC 20 exercise on November 11, 2020, as part of PacWave20 (29 Oct 2020, Spanish, PDF, 216 KB)
- IOC Media Advisory, CATAC Regional Exercise, 10 November 2020 (PDF, 3.6 MB)
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Tsunami Coastal Assessement Tool (TsuCAT) - web site
- Information Sheet, v4.2, October 2020 (PDF, 832 KB)
- Tsunami Coastal Hazard Assessment Tool (TsuCAT) - Supporting National Efforts in Disaster Risk Reduction, Intl Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Jul 2019 (PDF, 14 MB, poster)
- Tsunami Coastal Assessment Tool (TsuCAT): A Tool fo Rapid Initial Tsunami Assessment, IOC/UNESCO Symposium, Feb 2018, (PDF, 13 MB, poster)
- User's Manual, v4.0, Apr 2019 (PDF, 7.5 MB)
- User's Manual, v4.1, Sep 2019 (PDF, 8 MB)
- User's Manual, v4.2, October 2020 (PDF, 8.5 MB)
- TsuCAT overview presentation, October 2020 (PDF, 14 MB)
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How to Plan, Conduct, and Evaluate Tsunami Exercises IOC Manual and Guides 58, 2013
- English (PDF, 1.3 MB)
- Spanish (PDF, 1.1 MB)
- Summary Powerpoint (Oct 2011) (PPT, 3.0 MB)
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Plans and Procedures for Tsunami Warning and Emergency Management (IOC Manual and Guides 76 rev., 2017, English (PDF, 3 MB)
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| Preparing for Community Tsunami Evacuations: from inundation to evacuation maps, response planning, and exercises, Guide and Supplements (IOC Manual and Guides 82, 2020, English, Spanish) - web site |
NWPTAC Enhanced Products (For Member States of the NWPTAC Area of Responsibility only)
- IOC Circular Letter No. 2702, Starting of issuance of experimental NWPTAC Enhanced Products on 20 December 2017, including Users Guide (13 Dec 2017, PDF, 124 KB)
- IOC Circular Letter No. 2753, Full transition to NWPTAC enhanced products as from 28 February 2019 (24 Jan 2019, PDF, 370 KB)
- NWPTAC Enhanced Products Area of Service, Jan 2019 (IOC TS 142, PDF, 65 KB)
- Users' Guide for the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center (NWPTAC), Enhanced Products for the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (IOC TS 142, Jan 2019, PDF, 1.7 MB)
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SCSTAC Enhanced Products (For Member States of the South China Sea region only)
- IOC Circular Letter No. 2706, Starting of trail operations of the South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC) on 26 January 2018 (5 January 2018, PDF, 124 KB)
- IOC Circular Letter No. 2777, Full operation of the South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC) starts 5 November 2019 (16 September 2019, PDF, KB)
- SCSTAC Area of Service (IOC TS 149, PDF, 229 KB)
- User's Guide for the South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC) products for the South China Sea Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOC TS 149, Sept 2019) (PDF, 2.8 MB)
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PTWC Enhanced Products (Web Site)
User’s Guide for the PTWC Enhanced Products for the PTWS (IOC TS 105 rev, Aug 2014)
- English, correction 14 Oct 2014 (Full resolution, PDF, 4.4 MB)
- Spanish, correction 14 Oct 2014 (Full resolution, PDF, 4.4 MB)
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Previous PacWave Exercises
- Exercise Pacific Wave 2018, Summary Report (PDF, 2.7 MB)
- Exercise Pacific Wave 2017, Summary Report, final draft, January 2018 (PDF, 1.2 MB)
- Exercise Pacific Wave 2006-2016 - Decade of Reflection, (PPT, 3.2 MB, PDF 2.9 MB)
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IOC Tsunami Warning Focal Point (TWFP) and National Tsunami Warning Center (NTWC) Contact Information
- Definitions (IOC Executive Council, July 2014) (PDF, 53 KB)
- Updating information on National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWC) and Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFP) for the PTWS region according to new definitions (23 January 2015)
IOC CL 2563 (PDF, 352 KB)
IOC CL 2563 Annex, NTWC, TWFP Nomination Form (MsWord, 82 KB)
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PacWave Support information - past PacWave exercises
- Tsunami Travel Time Maps (HTML)
- Historical Tsunami & Seismicity Maps (HTML)
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PacWave20 Exercise Evaluation Form (Exercise Mannual, TS 155)
Please complete online by 21 December 2020, at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/pacwave20_eval (open from 1 November 2020)
For reference, fillable PDF-format is available, English (PDF, 507 KB)
If you have difficulty submitting online, you may submit the Evaluation PDF
by email to the Task Team chairs:
Laura Kong, ITIC, laura.kong@noaa.gov
Emilio Talivera, Nicaragua INETER, emilio.talavera@gf.ineter.gob.ni
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PacWave20 Regional / Country Exercises. ** NEW **
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PacWave Overview:Building Tsunami Resiliency in the Pacific: Exercise Pacific Wave Exercises (2006-2020) (ECO Magazine Special Issue on UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (PDF, 1 MB)
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CATAC Regional Exercise, 11 Nov 2020 (PDF, 43 K)
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Regional Exercise PacWave20 GT-ARPS / SEP-WG, 22 Oct 2020 (PDF, 2.8 MB)
- CNAT, Colombia, 22 Oct 2020 (video MP4, 27 MB)
- Russia Sakhalin TWC, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Seis Sta, Reg Ministry Emerg Situations, Tabletop, 2020 (PDF, 1 MB)
- Fiji Tsunami Evacuation Drill for USP Labasa Campus & TAFE Campus, Fiji, 5 Nov 2020 (PDF, 2.3 MB)
- Tsunami PacWave20 and World Tsunami Awareness Day, Fiji, 5 Nov 2020 (PDF, 2.6 MB)
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Fetuvalu Secondary School Tsunami Drill Simulation, Tuvalu, 19 Nov 2020 (PDF, 2.7 MB)
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NOAA
