Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

The Family is Still Growing Up

The CTBTO was established in March 1997 and about 4 months later the first staff members of the Infrasound Section arrived in Vienna to initiate work on the IMS Infrasound Network. This program started from zero since there were no existing stations in the global Infrasound Network. It was difficult at first since only a few institutions had any previous experience in this field. Initially, we had to determine the requirements for site surveys, place orders for field equipment, interview applicants for positions with the Infrasound Section and obtain authorization from the member States to start work in their countries. After some delay, the first site survey conducted by our staff using our new equipment was carried out in May 1998 at infrasound station IS09 in Brasilia, Brazil.

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As of today, the progress on the establishment of the IMS Infrasound network is as follows: 10 stations certified of 15 that are sending data to Vienna, 13 stations under construction and 9 more stations in the contract negotiation phase. This represents a total commitment of approximately 60% of the global IMS Infrasound Network. This global network is being installed in a wide variety of environments and, as consequence, the array design varies from one station to another in order to optimize station detection capability. However, the infrasound equipment that is being installed has a relatively high level of homogeneity and this will facilitate the global maintenance of the network.

It is expected that by the end of 2003 about 10 more stations should be transmitting data to Vienna. In addition, several other stations should be certified. As result, a considerable portion of the network should be in place by the end of this year, including a regional infrasound network extending throughout the North and South America continents.

The family is still growing-up refers not only to the current number of stations that are continuously being added to the global infrasound network but also to the number of people involved in the rapidly expanding infrasound community. New members, more data, more research and more ideas are good ingredients for progress and will lead to new discoveries in the field of infrasound.

Alberto Veloso
Chief, IMS-Infrasound Section
Preparatory Commission for the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 1200
1400 Vienna, Austria
43-1-260 30 6205
j.veloso@ctbto.org