The Application of Atmospheric Modeling to the Design and the Verification of the CTBT - an Historical Perspective and Current Areas of Work

The concepts surrounding a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty can be traced back to the early 50’s and are well described in Sullivan (1998). The verification regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty requires the establishment of an International Monitoring System (IMS) based on four different monitoring technologies: seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide. The first three technologies are based on the propagation of various waves in the Earth’s mantle, oceans and atmosphere and are designed to detect and locate the site of an explosion and its magnitude. The monitoring of radionuclide is based on the atmospheric transport of radioactive material possibly released by the explosion. The propagation of infrasonic waves and the transport of radionuclides are critically dependent on the three dimensional structure of the atmosphere. This has an impact on the actual verification work and we can also take advantage of our knowldege of the atmosphere to help design a monitoring network.