CTNW

Objectives:

Objectives for the Expert Meetings on SPS and ETA for Waveform Methods, and for RN and ATM Methods are:

Present the MVC concept to participants, explaining its structure, components, and intended processes;

Advance the common understanding of the defined procedures, building on what was developed at previous meetings.

Facilitate interactive sessions to stress-test the MVC and receive viable feedback on proposed procedures;

Gather expert feedback on: a) The understanding of the concept among participants, b) The usefulness and practicality of the MVC in real-world scenarios, c) The feasibility of implementing the proposed procedures, methods and materials.

Identify areas for improvement and potential challenges in implementing the MVC;

Discuss advances and introduce new approaches to scientific methods (for the respective technologies) which could be used during Special Analysis.

Clear definitions and distinctions between SPS and ETA;

A structured process for requesting special analysis, including prioritization criteria;

An approach to achieve an agreed-upon method list for both SPS and ETA, along with procedures to add and maintain methods;

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for executing SPS and ETA, including associated templates and documents;

Potential report content for Updated Radionuclide Report (URR), Updated Event Bulletin (UEB), and State Requested Methods Reports (SRMR)

Participants Profile:

Experts from NDCs and research establishments involved in testing, applying, and developing waveform, radionuclide, or ATM methods that may be suitable for inclusion into the IDC automatic processing pipelines or may be applicable to Special Studies and Expert Technical Analysis.

Further details:

Language:	English
Application Deadline:	11 Jul 2025 23:59 GMT
Funding Application Deadline:	11 Jul 2025 23:59 GMT
Abstract Submission Deadline:	11 Jul 2025 23:59 GMT

Financial Information

Applicants are requested to visit our website ctnw.ctbto.org and apply online latest by 11 July 2025. The same deadline applies to abstract submission if you wish to make a presentation.

Financial support may be available for a limited number of participants. Such assistance must be requested at the time of registration (by selecting the relevant box during online registration) and no later than 11 July 2025. Participants requesting financial assistance have to submit an abstract of their suggested presentation relevant to a topic of the meeting.

States Signatories wishing to nominate experts are requested to inform the Provisional Technical Secretariat (See Point of Contact) through their respective Permanent Mission.

Location

Venue Hotel(TBC), Vienna, Austria

Agenda (To be determined)

The focus lies on receiving feedback about the developed minimal viable concept for Special Analysis, as laid out in the Objectives section.

Additional specific objectives for the Waveform Methods:

Discuss methods for providing additional information about event source mechanisms, e.g. moment-tensor analysis;
Discuss the potential contributions and limitations of waveform-correlation processing for event analysis.

Additional specific objectives for Radionuclides (RN) and Atmospheric Transport Model (ATM) Methods:

Discuss methods to determine which samples are related to the same event (Screening;
Discuss ATM methods to locate the source region for single or multiple samples
Characterize the atmospheric isotope background based on known man-made sources.

Additional specific objectives for Data Fusion (DF):

Discuss methods for matching SHI events to radionuclide samples.;
Discuss methods to prioritize matches based on measured properties of the SHI event and radionuclide samples.

Meeting participants are welcome to contribute to the Technical Meetings by either:

Preparing a contribution by presenting and discussing a method that can be used to a) update our estimated values for standard parameters, b) include additional data that a State Party can provide, or, c) assist in identifying the source of an event. li>
Submitting a conceptual contribution outlining what your State Party expects from Special Analysis and how they will most likely make use of it.

Application Procedure