SM8.5 | Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Monitoring and its civil and scientific applications
EDI PICO
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Monitoring and its civil and scientific applications
Co-organized by AS4
Convener: Christoph Pilger | Co-conveners: Maria-Theresia Apoloner, Anne TipkaECSECS, Ehsan Qorbani Chegeni

The CTBT's International Monitoring System (IMS) uses a global network of seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasound sensors, as well as air sampling of radionuclides, to detect nuclear tests worldwide. The data from the IMS stations undergoes a multi-step processing and analysis procedure at the International Data Centre (IDC) to detect and locate natural and human-made events in any environment - underground, underwater, or in the atmosphere. By using atmospheric transport modelling (ATM), a link between a radionuclide detection and a possible source region can be estimated. On-site inspection (OSI) technologies utilize similar seismo-acoustic methods on a smaller scale, as well as geophysical methods like ground penetrating radar and geomagnetic surveying, to identify evidence of a nuclear test.
This session invites studies focused on methods and applications for event detection and location using seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide technologies. Contributions on the enhancement of seismic velocity and regional seismic travel-time models, as well as the modeling of acoustic wave propagation, ATM of radionuclides, and contributions regarding the data fusion of various technologies are welcome. The session invites contributions on Nuclear-Test-Ban Monitoring using either IMS or OSI instrumentation, data or methods. This can be either in the context of explosion monitoring of actual or historic events or by taking into account fictitious scenarios like the National Data Centre Preparedness Exercises (NPE).
Contributions to the civil or scientific use of IMS data are encouraged. Civil applications include disaster risk reduction through early warning or hazard assessments for earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity. Earth science applications encompass analyses on different natural or anthropogenic sources as well as studies on climate change, ocean processes, solid Earth structure, and atmospheric circulation. Finally, contributions on the application of machine learning in event detection, localization, discrimination, and monitoring are highly encouraged.