SAIC Receives NOAA Contract to Enhance Tsunami Detection, Warning Equipment

Science Applications International Corp. has secured a $30 million contract to modernize and replace equipment on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s real-time tsunami detection and warning system.

SAIC will develop modernized equipment designed to make data collected by the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis Ocean Observing System more reliable and accessible and improve tsunami forecasts and predictions, NOAA said Friday.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds the contract, which will replace the DART equipment beginning in 2025.

“This investment to upgrade the DART network will help improve tsunami detection, warnings and the forecast for intensity and arrival times,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad.

NOAA operates a full network of 39 DART buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic ocean basins, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean basins. Each system consists of an anchored seafloor bottom pressure recorder and a companion surface buoy that transmits real-time communications to the National Weather Service’s Tsunami Warning Centers.