ARL News
NOAA to participate in an upcoming test with the CTBTO
November 30, 2007
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) will be conducting an exercise with the
World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers (RSMC)
next month to test the operational arrangements to provide potential source locations based
upon an anomalous radiological measurement in their network. The intent of their monitoring
network is to identify the source of clandestine nuclear testing based upon any radiological
products that may be emitted to the atmosphere and then the RSMC would compute the upwind
path that would have carried the material to the monitoring location. The Air Resources
Laboratory (ARL) will exercise the prototype source attribution tools it has developed to
support the services of the U.S. RSMC.
Background:
The Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) has been providing research support to the development of
source-attribution capabilities that can be used in the context of the CTBTO applications
since 1995 when the CTBTO was first being established. The framework of the cooperation
agreement between CTBTO and WMO was formalized in July 2003 and under these arrangements CTBTO
notifies the WMO Secretariat and RSMC designated for the provision of atmospheric backtracking
products when anomalous Radionuclide measurements occur in the International Monitoring System.
The RSMC provide upwind transport model products to the CTBTO that identify the source regions
for the measurements. The CTBTO then synthesizes these multiple products into a single event
report for distribution to its member countries. NOAA’s RSMC for transport model products is a
joint activity between the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and ARL, with
NCEP providing operational support and ARL providing the research and development support. This
upcoming test and all previous tests have been conducted in our research environment. However,
at the completion of this next test, WMO will request its RSMC to consider providing these
products in more operational framework.
Significance:
The CTBT is intended to limit nuclear proliferation by restricting the testing of nuclear
weapons. The treaty includes verification approaches to discourage clandestine tests. The
identification of sources of airborne radioactive is an important component of the
verification.
More Information:
http://fts.ctbto.org/atm/ and
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/CBS/Reports/CBS-Ext06_Seoul2006/WMO-1017_en.pdf
Contact information: Roland R. Draxler
Phone: (301) 713-0295
e-mail: roland.draxler@noaa.gov
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