The Meteorological Agency will use seismographic data collected by an international organization building a nuclear test detection network to give tsunami warnings to other countries.
The agency has been able to access data collected by the Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) following the major earthquake last December that caused the Indian Ocean tsunamis, agency officials said Tuesday.
The agency will start building a system to incorporate data from the CTBTO in fiscal 2006, which begins April 1.
Since March, the agency has been providing tsunami alerts to 26 countries facing the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
If a quake with a magnitude of 6.5 or higher occurs, the agency uses dedicated lines to provide information on the epicenter, the projected height of the tsunamis, and an estimate of when they will hit land within 30 minutes, according to the agency.