The PTS is currently in Phase 3 of the IDC Reengineering program, which includes a large-scale effort to improve SHI processing system. The PTS will modernize the software infrastructure to make the system easier to maintain, and easier to upgrade. Pipeline processes, algorithms, and analysts interfaces will also be updated. Technical meetings are held periodically to provide a forum for experts from Member States to review and give feedback on Reengineering Phase 3 (RP3) progress and plans.
This 2020 technical meeting will focus on:
Meeting participants are invited to contribute to the technical meeting by making a 15 minutes presentation related to one of the following themes:
The objective of this technical meeting is to continue the process of completing the IDC Validation and Acceptance Test Plan (VATP). The focus for this particular meeting will be on reviewing the changes that were introduced following the June 2019 meeting and to continue improving the content of the individual tests. A summary of the outcome from this meeting will be presented to WGB-56.
Participant profile: The meeting is aimed towards scientists, engineers and other persons who have technical expertise in one of the four IMS technologies, the functions of the IDC and in performance monitoring and testing. The participants are expected to provide their technical input to the VATP and related activities such as the 2021 experiment.
States Signatories are expected to nominate experts who will provide substantive inputs to these topics for discussion.
Information will be available on the Expert Communication System ECS prior to the meeting. Experts are expected to review and evaluate the latest version of the VATP and all other related material.
The Provisional Technical Secretariat may solicit presentations from participants on the topics of the meeting.
The PTS is actively pursuing initiatives to improve the performance of the IDC waveform automatic processing pipeline. Some active research and development areas are :
The objective of this technical expert meeting is twofold:
Meeting participants are welcome to contribute to the technical meeting by making a brief presentation related to one of the topics above.
Special Studies provide in-depth, technical reviews by expert analysis of data from the International Monitoring System (IMS) to improve the estimated values for the standard signal and event parameters resulting in an Updated Radionuclide Report (URR).
The purpose of the Expert Technical Analysis (ETA) of IMS data and other relevant data provided by the requesting State Party is to assist the State Party concerned to identify the source of specific events. The output is the State Requested Methods Report (SRMR).
URR and SRMR need to be seen in the context of the standard products they are building on, specifically the Standard Screened Radionuclide Event Bulletin (SSREB). Beyond its current implementation it may contain among others the use of atmospheric transport modelling results to combine field of regard information from all radionuclide samples sharing a possible common source region related to a single event. If available, information derived from isotopic ratios is included and may be used to confine the field of regard. The National Screened Radionuclide Event Bulletin (NSREB) was introduced and needs to be developed.
The objectives of this technical expert meeting are:
Meeting participants are welcome to contribute to the technical meeting by making a brief presentation related to one of the Agenda topics.
The objectives for the NDC Capacity Building Workshop are: The additional objectives for the RSTT and Data Sharing and Integration Training are:
Expert meeting on Advances in Waveform Processing and Special Studies
3rd Expert Meeting on Special Studies and ETA with RN and ATM Methods
NDC Capacity Building Workshop and Regional Seismic Travel Time (RSTT) in combination with Data Sharing and Integration Training for the Middle East and South Asia (MESA) region
• to strengthen participants’ knowledge of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the work of the Preparatory Commission;
• to further build up the national and regional capacities in implementing the Treaty and participating in the verification regime;
• to promote the civil and scientific application of verification technologies.
• to recognize the importance of obtaining better regional locations for future tomographic studies;
• to understand and learn how the RSTT model can help regional networks achieve more precise event locations;
• to learn how RSTT can be interfaced with current locators used in daily earthquake location procedures;
• to demonstrate the importance of Ground-Truth (GT) event locations in defining regional seismic velocity structures and models;
• to share data and to develop the Regional Seismic Travel Time Model (RSTT) in Middle East and South Asia (MESA) through the acquisition of GT seismic locations;
• to integrate local or regional non-IMS data with the NDC-in-a-Box software for event location;
• to stimulate regional cooperation in data exchange through the NDCs and/or regional network operators.
