Tonga joins first Pacific Wave 2022 Regional Exercise [1]
Friday, November 11, 2022 - 23:26
Eighteen Pacific countries and territories conducted their first-ever regional exercise (PacWave22-PICT) to test new early warning procedures for a potential tsunami arising from volcanic activity in the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai (HTHH) volcano.
Tonga Meteorological Services (TMS), Government of Tonga joined together with other Pacific Island countries and territories, including Fiji, France New Caledonia, Nauru, Samoa, and Tuvalu, on 10 November in the two-hour long live regional exercise.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) which carries out tsunami procedures and products, for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, was immediately developed after the catastrophic volcanic eruption in Tonga on January 15 this year.
The objective of the exercise was to re-strength regional collaboration, dissemination of scientific information, shared scientific analysis and observations, testing various regional and international communication modes between tsunami warning agencies, geo-hazard departments and disaster management offices.
At the same time, using specially-developed message products, PacWave22-PICT reran the HTHH volcanic eruption and tsunami, as an exercise to enable countries to test their volcanic tsunami response Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and to test regional communication systems for sharing warning and response information between national tsunami warning centres, national disaster management offices, and geological hazard observatories.
The Pacific Wave Exercises take place every two years to test the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, the response of national tsunami warning centres, and country preparedness and operational procedures to respond and recover from a destructive tsunami.