Infrasound source location at the prototype international data center

Abstract

The Prototype International Data Center (PIDC) is developing an operational system to provide temporal and spatial source location information for highly impulsive sources with an equivalent nuclear yield of at least 1 kT in any terrestrial environment. This source information is deduced by a combination of automatic and interactive processing. Detecting the infrasound released by large-scale atmospheric explosions is the most suitable method for the immediate location and characterization of atmospheric sources. The PIDC treats the source location problem uniquely in that a given source can be located using any combination of infrasonic, seismic, or hydroacoustic signals when these signals exist. The highly dynamic aspect of the atmosphere, however, creates problems not traditionally encountered in the seismic or hydroacoustic source location problem. The dynamic nature of these effects will limit the ability to apply detailed propagation models in an automatic operational system, such as is being developed at the PIDC. A seasonal atmospheric model is being used in conjunction with near real-time meteorological data to provide the ambient atmospheric conditions required by the physical propagation model. Results obtained from a ground-truth data set will be presented that demonstrate the operation of the PIDC source location procedure.