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Ionospheric detection of the 25 May 2009 North Korean underground nuclear test
Author(s) -
Park Jihye,
von Frese Ralph R. B.,
GrejnerBrzezinska Dorota A.,
Morton Yu,
GayaPique Luis R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl049430
Subject(s) - gnss applications , epicenter , tec , satellite , satellite system , ionosphere , geology , total electron content , seismology , remote sensing , meteorology , global positioning system , geophysics , computer science , geography , telecommunications , physics , astronomy
The total electron content (TEC) measurements of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) revealed traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID) that locate North Korea's underground nuclear explosion (UNE) of 25 May 2009 to within about 3.5 km of its seismically determined epicenter. The random chance for this pattern of TIDs to register across the eleven GNSS stations is roughly 1 in 19 billion. Monte Carlo analysis of nearly 1,300 TIDs from a 7‐station subset of the 11 GNSS stations supports the statistical strength of the array's signature. The UNE was also detected by seismic stations and possibly a local infrasound network of the International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), but no radionuclide evidence was found. Thus, global GNSS infrastructure enables mapping spatial and temporal variations of TEC that augment and complement other methods of detecting and locating clandestine UNEs.