The Nuclear Explosion Database (NEDB): A New Database and Web Site for Accessing Nuclear Explosion Source Information and Waveforms

Bennett, Theron J.; Oancea, Victoria; Barker, B. W.; Kung, Yu-Long; Bahavar, M.; Kohl, Benjamin C.; Murphy, J. R.; Bondár, István

doi:10.1785/gssrl.81.1.12

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The inclusion of the so-called legacy seismic arrays into the IMS was very necessary as many of these arrays are the only stations to have existing records of many historical nuclear explosions. Waveforms from several of the legacy stations for many nuclear test explosions are openly available on the http://www.rdss.info/database/nedb/nedb_ent.html website (see Bennett et al, 2010).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Applicability of Incoherent Array Processing to IMS Seismic Arrays

Gibbons¹

2017

Preprint

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The seismic arrays of the International Monitoring System (IMS) for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) are highly diverse in size and configuration, with apertures ranging from under 1 km to over 60 km. Large and medium aperture arrays with large inter-site spacings complicate the detection and estimation of high-frequency phases lacking coherence between sensors. Pipeline detection algorithms often miss such phases, since they only consider frequencies low enough to allow coherent array processing, and phases that are detected are often attributed qualitatively incorrect backazimuth and slowness estimates. This can result in missed events, due to either a lack of contributing phases or by corruption of event hypotheses by spurious detections. It has been demonstrated previously that continuous spectral estimation can both detect and estimate phases on the largest aperture arrays, with arrivals identified as local maxima on beams of transformed spectrograms. The estimation procedure in effect measures group velocity rather than phase velocity, as is the case for classical f–k analysis, and the ability to estimate slowness vectors requires sufficiently large inter-sensor distances to resolve time-delays between pulses with a period of the order 4–5 s. Spectrogram beampacking works well on five IMS arrays with apertures over 20 km (NOA, AKASG, YKA, WRA, and KURK) without additional post-processing. Seven arrays with 10–20 km aperture (MJAR, ESDC, ILAR, KSRS, CMAR, ASAR, and EKA) can provide robust parameter estimates subject to a smoothing of the resulting slowness grids, most effectively achieved by convolving the measured slowness grids with the array response function for a 4 or 5 s period signal. Even for medium aperture arrays which can provide high-quality coherent slowness estimates, a complementary spectrogram beampacking procedure could act as a quality control by providing non-aliased estimates when the coherent slowness grids display significant sidelobes. The detection part of the algorithm is applicable to all IMS arrays, with spectrogram-based processing offering a potential reduction in the false alarm rate for high-frequency signals. Significantly, the local maxima of the scalar functions derived from the transformed spectrogram beams are robust estimates of the signal onset time. High-frequency energy is of greater importance for lower event magnitudes and in the cavity decoupling detection evasion scenario. There is a need to characterize both propagation paths with low attenuation of high-frequency energy and situations in which parameter estimation on array stations fails.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Applicability of Incoherent Array Processing to IMS Seismic Arrays

Gibbons¹

2017

Preprint

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“…The existing Leidos Research and Development Support Services (RDSS) archive was also used. Some of the waveforms of the oldest nuclear explosions were hand-digitized or digitized from tapes and have a lower quality compared with modern data (see Bennett et al, 2010).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…WFNE repository was developed and is maintained by Leidos under DTRA sponsorship. Built as a trusted data set, WFNE starts from the previous data repository "Nuclear Explosion Database (NEDB)" that was accessed in the past by numerous users in the US and international nuclear explosion community (Bennett et al, 2010). WFNE was updated and improved, newly identified data were added, the web-based access and the presentation were updated and modernized and rendered ready for active access.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waveforms from Nuclear Explosions (WFNE) Repository

Oancea,

Kung,

Murphy

et al. 2023

Preprint

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A key element of successful nuclear monitoring involves the assessment of any newly acquired data in the light of the vast amount of data previously recorded from historical nuclear explosions. The “Waveforms From Nuclear Explosions (WFNE)” repository was developed and is maintained by Leidos under sponsorship of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to provide convenient access to such historical data. It is built as a trusted data set, starting from the previous data repository “Nuclear Explosion Database (NEDB)” that was accessed in the past by numerous users in the US and international nuclear explosion monitoring community. WFNE includes detailed information (origin, bulletin, other geophysical data) on all the 2,157 atmospheric, underground and underwater nuclear explosions detonated in the world between 1945 and 2017. Over 82,000 waveforms associated to 802 of the nuclear explosions ranging from digitized analog recordings for the oldest explosions to recent International Monitoring System (IMS) data are included in WFNE, and their station/instrument information, as collected from many sources. The web-based access and the presentation were updated and modernized and rendered ready for active user access. Users can search, visualize, and download data of interest for their own research. Data continues to be collected from newly identified sources. Recent efforts on rescue of pre-digital seismic data via scanning and digitization provide interesting information to be added to WFNE, after completeness and quality checks. WFNE is open for the research community’s access to source parameter data and associated waveforms from worldwide nuclear explosions.

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“…For completeness, we also examine the three collapse events studied by Ford et al (2009). The catalog of Bennett et al (2010), shown in Figure S1 in the supporting information for events since 1988, contains additional events besides those considered in the studies of Ford et al (2009) and ours.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of Full Moment Tensors, Including Uncertainties, for Nuclear Explosions, Volcanic Events, and Earthquakes

et al. 2018

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A seismic moment tensor is a 3 × 3 symmetric matrix that provides a compact representation of a seismic source. We develop an algorithm to estimate moment tensors and their uncertainties from observed seismic data. For a given event, the algorithm performs a grid search over the six‐dimensional space of moment tensors by generating synthetic waveforms for each moment tensor and then evaluating a misfit function between the observed and synthetic waveforms. “The” moment tensor M0 for the event is then the moment tensor with minimum misfit. To describe the uncertainty associated with M0, we first convert the misfit function to a probability function. The uncertainty, or rather the confidence, is then given by the “confidence curve” 𝒫false(Vfalse), where 𝒫false(Vfalse) is the probability that the true moment tensor for the event lies within a certain neighborhood of M that has fractional volume V. The area under the confidence curve provides a single, abbreviated “confidence parameter” for M0. We apply the method to data from events in different regions and tectonic settings: 17 nuclear explosions and 12 earthquakes at the Nevada Test Site, 63 small (Mw<2.5) events at Uturuncu volcano in Bolivia, and 21 moderate (Mw>4) earthquakes in the southern Alaska subduction zone. Characterization of moment tensor uncertainties puts us in better position to discriminate among moment tensor source types and to assign physical processes to the events.

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The Nuclear Explosion Database (NEDB): A New Database and Web Site for Accessing Nuclear Explosion Source Information and Waveforms

Cited by 12 publications

References 18 publications

The Applicability of Incoherent Array Processing to IMS Seismic Arrays

The Applicability of Incoherent Array Processing to IMS Seismic Arrays

Waveforms from Nuclear Explosions (WFNE) Repository

Estimation of Full Moment Tensors, Including Uncertainties, for Nuclear Explosions, Volcanic Events, and Earthquakes

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