Backup South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (Hong Kong) Officially Commences Operations

Backup South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (Hong Kong) Officially Commences Operations

Lam Ching-chi

The Backup South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (Hong Kong) (BSCSTAC), located in the Central Forecasting Office the Hong Kong Observatory, was officially put into operation on 29 March 2023, after a year of trial operation. The Under Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Miss Diane Wong; the Director-General of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC), Professor Yu Fujiang; and the Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Chan Pak-wai, officiated at the opening ceremony.

All operating systems of the BSCSTAC are on hot standby mode on normal days, and are ready to support the South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (SCSTAC) in providing a tsunami alert service for the South China Sea region as and when necessary. The centre provides round-the-clock tsunami monitoring and alert services to nine countries around the South China Sea, through the framework of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO including Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Under Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Miss Diane Wong (centre); the Director-General of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, Professor Yu Fujiang (left); and the Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Chan Pak-wai (right), officiating at the opening ceremony of the backup centre

The NMEFC presented a certificate for the BSCSTAC to the Hong Kong Observatory

Introductory video on the Backup South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center (Hong Kong)