On the infrasound detected from the 2013 and 2016 DPRK's underground nuclear tests

On the infrasound detected from the 2013 and 2016 DPRK's underground nuclear tests

Assink, J. D. (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI))
Averbuch, G. (TU Delft Applied Geophysics and Petrophysics)
Smets, P.S.M. (TU Delft Applied Geophysics and Petrophysics; Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI))
Evers, L.G. (TU Delft Applied Geophysics and Petrophysics; Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI))

2016-04-16

The underground nuclear tests by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) generated atmospheric infrasound both in 2013 and 2016. Clear detections were made in the Russian Federation (I45RU) and Japan (I30JP) in 2013 at stations from the International Monitoring System. Both tropospheric and stratospheric refractions arrived at the stations. In 2016, only a weak return was potentially observed at I45RU. Data analysis and propagation modeling show that the noise level at the stations and the stratospheric circumpolar vortex were different in 2016 compared to 2013. As the seismic magnitude of the 2013 and 2016 nuclear test explosions was comparable, we hypothesize that the 2016 test occurred at least 1.5 times deeper. In such a case, less seismic energy would couple through the lithosphere-atmosphere interface, leading to less observable infrasound. Since explosion depth is difficult to estimate from seismic data alone, this motivates a synergy between seismics and infrasonics.

infrasound
propagation modeling
seismoacoustic coupling
Test-Ban Treaty verification

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b2fa8a60-3e8d-4c1b-a6d2-e081acf5982c

https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068497

2016-11-30

0094-8276

Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (7), 3526-3533

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2016 J. D. Assink, G. Averbuch, P.S.M. Smets, L.G. Evers