The CTBTO International Data Centre (IDC)

Following the negotiations on establishing The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in Geneva from 1993 to 1996 and its opening for signature, The Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) has been since 17 March 1997 engaged in the establishment of a global verification regime to monitor compliance (prohibition of all nuclear test explosions in any environment). The treaty is yet to reach entry-into-force (EiF), pending mandatory signature and/or ratification of key States (Article IV and Annex 2 of the treaty). The verification regime includes both non-technical and technical elements. While non-technical refers to diplomatic actions and confidence building measures within States Parties, the latter involves the construction of a complex system built on science, strategy and technology that is divided into three large components progressively being established: the International Monitoring System (IMS), the International Data Centre (IDC) and the On-Site Inspection (OSI). The role of the IDC is to receive, collect, process, analyse, report-on and archive data from the IMS and other verification elements. Furthermore, to apply on a routine basis, automatic and manual data processing (in order) to produce and archive Standard IDC Products on behalf of all States Parties (provided at no cost) without prejudice to final judgments with regard to the nature of any event, which shall remain the responsibility of the States. IDC operations began in 2000 with the release of the first global monitoring (automatic and manual) products. The progression of the building of the IMS (coverage) has progressively improved the IDC accuracy by lowering the statistical uncertainty of the parameters associated with the seismoacoustic event epicenters and radionuclide monitoring. A parallel activity of the IDC is the adaptation of new methods for event detection, in particular the global association of phase arrivals as part of the building of the bulletins, completing the new suit of software for the automatic processing and the interactive review of radionuclide data analysis and the progression on software development in general. Other functions of the IDC include the provision of open, equal, timely and convenient access to all IMS data, raw or processed (IDC Products), Technical assistance to individual States with a Capacity Building and Training (CBT) programme and engagement with the scientific community.