Speaker
Description
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) builds and maintains the International Monitoring System (IMS) primarily for the use of treaty-related verification tasks. Of the civil and scientific applications for the data from the IMS, the most widespread and publicized of these is in tsunami warning. Following the 2004 Sumatra earthquake which resulted in a devastating Tsunami, a decision was reached by the PrepCom that the forwarding of continuous real-time data obtained from the IMS by the International Data Centre (IDC) to existing Tsunami Warning Centers would be of practical benefit. To this end, an agreement between the CTBTO and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was initiated to provide for the supply of such data to recognized Tsunami Warning Centers. The agreement between CTBTO and UNESCO was ultimately signed in 2010. By the end of 2014, fifteen centers in fourteen countries (Australia, France, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, USA) had initiated such data forwarding arrangements with the CTBTO. The overview of the present situation is provided through a selection of maps and data volume graphs indicating the dispersion of tsunami warning countries and the data volumes over the years.
