OpenLegislation

Division Objectives

United Kingdom

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

The CTBTO is planning to relocate the two mobile systems purchased under Joint Action 2008/588/CFSP and currently operating in Kuwait and Indonesia. Cooperation agreements with future host countries are under discussion.

From a network coverage point of view, the Southeast Asian region is of great importance for the CTBTO as no IMS noble gas system is currently operating there. In addition to a significant reinforcement of the coverage in that region of the world, operating a mobile system for a background campaign will allow to:

  • improve our understanding in the regional radio-xenon background of equatorial regions, where the dispersion of noble gases is made very complex by many intense phenomena,

  • further refine atmospheric and dispersion models to better represent air masses movements in that region of the globe.

The CTBTO is planning to run a measurement campaign in the Southeast Asian region for at least 12 months to cover the whole seasonal variation.

The CTBTO aims at operating another mobile system in the East Asian region. Considerable insights on the characterisation of the radio-xenon background were previously provided by a short Union-funded measurement campaign. A longer measurement campaign is crucial to complement and refine our knowledge of the regional radio-xenon background. The main objective of this complementary campaign is to allow the characterisation of the East Asian region throughout an entire 12-month cycle covering all seasonal conditions. The location will be selected with the goal of running an intensified regional network of sensors (i.e. with higher density as compared to the current IMS noble gas network). This will be the first occurrence of having at least two systems very close to each other, allowing more scientific studies on cross-validation of the systems, cross-correlation of the detections, small scale Atmospheric Transport Modelling (ATM) developments, etc. This study could benefit of a partnership with States in the region that also plan for voluntary contributions on this subject.

After the end of these campaigns, the CTBTO is planning to perform additional measurements in areas where the global radio-xenon background is not sufficiently known and understood. Preferred locations are equatorial sites in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

To continue the measurement campaigns, funds are required for the shipment to new locations, operation and maintenance of the two mobile noble gas systems for 2 years.