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Notice: NDBC plans to conduct testing of its DART (tsunameter) network the week of January 12-16, 2009. Click here for details.

DART® Design Characterstics/Specifications

SUMMARY OF DART II PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS/SPECIFICATIONS

Mandatory Characteristic Measurement sensitivity Sampling interval, internal record Sampling interval, event reports Sampling interval, tidal reports Two-way end-to-end communications Tsunami data report trigger Data flow, BPR to TWC	Specification Less than 1 millimeter in 6000 meters; 2 * 10-7 15 seconds 15 and 60 seconds 15 minutes On demand, tsunami warning center (TWC) trigger Automatically by tsunami detection algorithm Less than 3 minutes after triggered event
Desired Characteristic Reliability and data return ratio Maximum deployment depth Minimum deployment duration Operating Conditions Theoretical Battery Life, buoy Theoretical Battery Life, tsunameter Maximum status report interval	Specification Greater than 80% 6000 meters 1 year Beaufort 9 Greater than 2 years Greater than 4 years Less than 6 hours

DART Mooring System

Iridium uses a Motorola 9522 L-band trans- ceiver from NAL Research at 2400 baud.

GPS is a Leadtek model 9546 receiver

Buoy:
--- Fiberglass over foam.
--- Computer is 32-bit, 3.3 volt Motorola 68332
--- System electronics use 2560 watt-hour D-cell battery pack.

Mooring is 19 mm 8-strandplaited nylon line with rated breaking strength of 7100 kg.

Acoustic modems on tsunameter and buoy:
--- Benthos ATM-880 Telesonar with AT-421LF directional transducer.
--- Powered by 1800 watt-hour batteries.

Tsunameter:
--- Pressure sensor is a 0-10000 psi model 410K Digiquartz Paroscientific unit.
--- Tilt sensor is Geometrics 900-45 to determine orientation.
--- Uses Alkaline D-cell battery with 1560 watt-hour capacity.
--- Uses same computer as buoy.

U.S. Dept. of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Weather Service
National Data Buoy Center
1007 Balch Blvd.
Stennis Space Center, MS 39529
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Page last modified: April 1, 2008

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