Tsunami Gauge Network
Tsunami Gauge Network Data
The Aotearoa New Zealand Tsunami Gauge network, also known as the Coastal Sea Level gauge network, supports detection and analysis of potential tsunami threats arriving at New Zealand's coasts. It is currently comprised of 18 stations across the North and South Islands, extending to Raoul Island and Wharekauri Chatham Island, and 1 sensor deployed in Lake Taupō which specifically supports understanding of possible lake tsunami for volcano monitoring and research (not for early warning purposes). The data is acquired by shallow water pressure sensors which record the changes in water height above them. A pair of instruments are located at each station to improve accuracy and provide some redundancy. The data helps scientists provide advice on whether tsunami or abnormal waves have arrived on Aotearoa New Zealand's shores. This network complements the NZ DART network, which monitors potential tsunami waves in the deeper ocean around NZ and the southwest Pacific and helps us to build a better understanding of our tsunami hazard and risk.
Understanding the Data
Tsunami Gauge data is sampled every 15 seconds from each of the two sensors. Normally only one sensor is represented on the graph above, however, if one sensor returns an incomplete time series for the given time range, both sensors will be shown. If you want to view all available data from the tsunami gauges you can use our Tilde data discovery tool. This includes water height and de-tided water height data for all gauges. The de-tided water height data is calculated by using tidal coefficients (provided by NIWA) which can be found on GitHub.
* A Tsunami Gauge station is considered not operational if we have not received any data in the last 5 days. If you'd like more information as to why these stations are marked as non-operational, please contact info@geonet.org.nz.
Helpful Links
Explore & Download More Data - Tilde Data Exploration Tool
If you want to download data or explore other data types, including DART data, try our Exploration Tool.
GNS Science Tsunami Gauge Dataset Catalogue
For further tsunami gauge data information and DOI for citation.
Tsunami Gauge Data Tutorials
Data Tutorials written in python to access the Tilde Data.
Tsunami Gauge Metadata Information via Toitū Te Whenua LINZ
Metadata information can also be accessed via Delta - a GeoNet GitHub repository.