Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission
Encyclopedia
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, CTBTO Preparatory Commission or CTBTO Prep Com is an international organization based in Vienna, Austria that is tasked with preparing the activities of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
(CTBTO). The organization was established by the states that signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996 and will cease to exist upon the entry into force of the CTBT. It builds, certifies and operates the infrastructure for detection of Nuclear Tests, prepares regulations for the CTBTO and stimulates entry into force of the CTBT.
Entry into force of the CTBT will result in the dissolution of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission and establishment of the CTBTO at the end of the first Conference of States Parties of the CTBT after entry into force. In that event all assets of the Commission will be transferred to the CTBTO. Entry into force requires ratification by China
, Egypt
, Indonesia
, India
, Iran
, Israel
, North Korea
, Pakistan
and the United States
and takes place 180 days after all these ratifications are received.
As of April 2011, over 80% of the system had been certified.
(VSAT) links. As of mid-2005, more than half of the planned IMS stations were providing data.
At the IDC, IMS data collected through GCI - approximately 16 gigabyte
s per day - is stored and correlated
using custom software to generate reports of significant events, which are subsequently reviewed by specially trained analysts in order to prepare quality-controlled event bulletins. The IDC operates a large redundant database
of events and a 125 terabyte
mass storage
facility that provides archiving capacity for more than ten years of verification data.
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization is an international organization that will be established upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a Convention that outlaws nuclear test explosions. Its seat will be Vienna, Austria...
(CTBTO). The organization was established by the states that signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996 and will cease to exist upon the entry into force of the CTBT. It builds, certifies and operates the infrastructure for detection of Nuclear Tests, prepares regulations for the CTBTO and stimulates entry into force of the CTBT.
Organization
The Preparatory Commission has a Plenary Body (sometimes called the Preparatory Commission as well) which meets twice a year and is composed of the countries that signed the CTBT. Its current chairperson is Ambassador Selma Ashipala-Musavyi of Namibia. The commission has two working groups working on financial (Working Group A) and verification matters (Working Group B). Its main activities are performed by the Provisional Technical Secretariat. This organization is led by the Executive Secretary. An overview of Executive Secretaries is shown below:| Country | Name | Start of Term |
|---|---|---|
| Wolfgang Hoffmann | 3 March 1997 | |
| Tibor Tóth | 1 August 2005 | |
Entry into force of the CTBT will result in the dissolution of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission and establishment of the CTBTO at the end of the first Conference of States Parties of the CTBT after entry into force. In that event all assets of the Commission will be transferred to the CTBTO. Entry into force requires ratification by China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and takes place 180 days after all these ratifications are received.
Monitoring Systems and Communication systems
The Preparatory Commission has started building the global systems for the detection of nuclear tests. The system consists of an International Monitoring System (IMS), a Global Communications Infrastructure as well as an International Data Center. The systems are not complete but for a large part operational.International Monitoring System (IMS)
The IMS, when completed, will consist of:- 50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismicSeismometerSeismometers are instruments that measure motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other seismic sources...
monitoring stations. Primary stations deliver data onlineONLINEONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
in real timeReal-time computingIn computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
, whereas auxiliary stations provide data upon request. Seismic data is used to locate seismic events and to distinguish between an underground nuclear explosionNuclear explosionA nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion based weapons have used a fission device...
and the numerous earthquakeEarthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s that occur around the globe. - 11 hydroacousticHydroacousticsHydroacoustics is a general term for the study and application of sound in water. The term comes from Greek υδρο, water, and ακουστική, acoustics...
stations detecting acoustic waves in the oceans. Six of these are hydrophoneHydrophoneA hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...
stations that use underwater microphones that transmit signals via cable to a shore station. Hydrophone stations are extremely sensitive and pick up acoustic waves from underwater events, including explosionsUnderwater explosionAn underwater explosion, also known as an UNDEX, is an explosion beneath the surface of water. The type of explosion may be chemical or nuclear...
, occurring very far away. The other five are seismic stations located on islands (T-phase stations) that use seismometers to detect acoustic waves converted to seismic waves when they hit the island. - 60 infrasoundInfrasoundInfrasound is sound that is lower in frequency than 20 Hz or cycles per second, the "normal" limit of human hearing. Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perceive infrasound, the sound pressure must be sufficiently high...
stations using microbarographs (acoustic pressure sensors) to detect very low-frequency sound waves in the atmosphere produced by natural and man-made events. These stations are arrays of four to eight sensors which are located one to three kilometers apart. The data are used to locate and to distinguish between atmospheric explosions and natural phenomena such as meteoriteMeteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
s, explosive volcanoVolcano2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
es and meteorological events as well as man-made phenomena such as re-entering space debrisSpace debrisSpace debris, also known as orbital debris, space junk, and space waste, is the collection of objects in orbit around Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful purpose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion...
, rocketRocketA rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
launches and supersonic aircraftSupersonic aircraftA supersonic aircraft is designed to exceed the speed of sound in at least some of its normal flight configurations.-Overview:The great majority of supersonic aircraft today are military or experimental aircraft...
. - 80 radionuclide stations using air samplers to detect radioactive particles released from atmospheric explosions and/or vented from underground or under-water explosions. The presence of specific radionuclides provides unambiguous evidence of a nuclear explosion. Forty of the stations will be equipped with noble gasNoble gasThe noble gases are a group of chemical elements with very similar properties: under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases, with very low chemical reactivity...
detection. There are several activities sponsored by the IMS, one of which is the International Noble Gas ExperimentInternational Noble Gas ExperimentThe International Noble Gas Experiment was formed in 1999 as an informal expert's group of developers of radioactive xenon measurement systems for the International Monitoring System for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty...
.
As of April 2011, over 80% of the system had been certified.
| Station type | Planned | Under Construction | Testing | Certified | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Seismic | 2 | 1 | 4 | 43 | 50 |
| Auxiliary Seismic | 4 | 6 | 8 | 104 | 120 |
| Infrasound | 10 | 7 | 0 | 43 | 60 |
| Hydroacoustic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 11 |
| Radionuclide | 5 | 12 | 3 | 60 | 80 |
Global Communications Infrastructure (GCI) and International Data Centre (IDC)
Data from all stations are transmitted to the CTBTO International Data Centre (IDC) in Vienna through a global private data network known as GCI, which is largely based on satelliteSatellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
(VSAT) links. As of mid-2005, more than half of the planned IMS stations were providing data.
At the IDC, IMS data collected through GCI - approximately 16 gigabyte
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
s per day - is stored and correlated
Correlation
In statistics, dependence refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data. Correlation refers to any of a broad class of statistical relationships involving dependence....
using custom software to generate reports of significant events, which are subsequently reviewed by specially trained analysts in order to prepare quality-controlled event bulletins. The IDC operates a large redundant database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
of events and a 125 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
mass storage
Mass storage
In computing, mass storage refers to the storage of large amounts of data in a persisting and machine-readable fashion. Devices and/or systems that have been described as mass storage include tape libraries, RAID systems, hard disk drives, magnetic tape drives, optical disc drives, magneto-optical...
facility that provides archiving capacity for more than ten years of verification data.