Electoral Corruption and Manipulation in Africa: the case for international monitoring

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
John Daniel ◽  
Roger Southall
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher C. M. Kyba ◽  
Kai Pong Tong ◽  
Jonathan Bennie ◽  
Ignacio Birriel ◽  
Jennifer J. Birriel ◽  
...  

Abstract Despite constituting a widespread and significant environmental change, understanding of artificial nighttime skyglow is extremely limited. Until now, published monitoring studies have been local or regional in scope and typically of short duration. In this first major international compilation of monitoring data we answer several key questions about skyglow properties. Skyglow is observed to vary over four orders of magnitude, a range hundreds of times larger than was the case before artificial light. Nearly all of the study sites were polluted by artificial light. A non-linear relationship is observed between the sky brightness on clear and overcast nights, with a change in behavior near the rural to urban landuse transition. Overcast skies ranged from a third darker to almost 18 times brighter than clear. Clear sky radiances estimated by the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness were found to be overestimated by ~25%; our dataset will play an important role in the calibration and ground truthing of future skyglow models. Most of the brightly lit sites darkened as the night progressed, typically by ~5% per hour. The great variation in skyglow radiance observed from site-to-site and with changing meteorological conditions underlines the need for a long-term international monitoring program.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Marty ◽  
Stéphane Denis ◽  
Thomas Gabrielson ◽  
Milton Garcés ◽  
David Brown

AbstractThe detection capability of the infrasound component of the International Monitoring System (IMS) is tightly linked to the performance of its wind noise reduction systems. The wind noise reduction solution implemented at all IMS infrasound measurement systems consists of a spatial distribution of air inlets connected to the infrasound sensor through a network of pipes. This system, usually referred to as “pipe array,” has proven its efficiency in operational conditions. The objective of this paper is to present the results of the comparison and validation of three distinct acoustic response models for pipe arrays. The characteristics of the models and the results obtained for a defined set of pipe array configurations are described. A field experiment using a newly developed infrasound generator, dedicated to the validation of these models, is then presented. The comparison between the modeled and empirical acoustic responses shows that two of the three models can be confidently used to estimate pipe array acoustic responses. This study paves the way to the deconvolution of IMS infrasound data from pipe array responses and to the optimization of pipe array design to IMS applications.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gaebler ◽  
Lars Ceranna ◽  
Nima Nooshiri ◽  
Andreas Barth ◽  
Simone Cesca ◽  
...  

Abstract. On September 3rd 2017 official channels of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced the successful test of a thermonuclear device. Only seconds to minutes after the alleged nuclear explosion at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the mountainous region in the country's northeast at 03:30:02 (UTC) hundreds of seismic stations distributed all around the globe picked up strong and distinct signals associated with an explosion. Different seismological agencies reported body wave magnitudes of well above 6.0, consequently estimating the explosive yield of the device in the order of hundreds of kilotons TNT equivalent. The 2017 event can therefore be assessed being multiple times larger in energy than the two preceding events in January and September 2016. This study provides a multi-technology analysis of the 2017 North Korean event and its aftermath using a wide array of geophysical methods. Seismological investigations locate the event within the test site at a depth of approximately 0.8 km below surface. The radiation and generation of P- and S-wave energy in the source region is significantly influenced by the topography of the Mt. Mantap massif. Inversions for the full moment tensor of the main event reveal a dominant isotropic component accompanied by significant amounts of double couple and compensated linear vector dipole terms, confirming the explosive character of the event. Analysis of the source mechanism of an aftershock that occurred around eight minutes after the test in the direct vicinity suggest a cavity collapse. Measurements at seismic stations of the International Monitoring System result in a body wave magnitude of 6.2, which translates to an yield estimate of around 400 kilotons TNT equivalent. The explosive yield is possibly overestimated, since topography and depth phases both tend to ehance the peak amplitudes of teleseismic P-waves. Interferometric Synthetic-Aperture-Radar analysis using data from the ALOS-2 satellite reveal strong surface deformations in the epicenter region. Additional multispectral optical data from the Pleiades satellite show clear landslide activity at the test site. The strong surface deformations generated large acoustic pressure peaks, which were observed as infrasound signals with distinctive waveforms even in distances of 400 km. In the aftermath of the 2017 event atmospheric traces of the fission product 133Xe have been detected at various locations in the wider region. While for 133Xe measurements in September 2017 the Punggye-ri test site is disfavored as source by means of atmospheric transport modeling, detections in October 2017 at the International Monitoring System station RN58 in Russia indicate a potential delayed leakage of 133Xe at the test site from the 2017 North Korean nuclear test.


Author(s):  
Lisa Linville ◽  
Ronald Chip Brogan ◽  
Christopher Young ◽  
Katherine Anderson Aur

ABSTRACT During the development of new seismic data processing methods, the verification of potential events and associated signals can present a nontrivial obstacle to the assessment of algorithm performance, especially as detection thresholds are lowered, resulting in the inclusion of significantly more anthropogenic signals. Here, we present two 14 day seismic event catalogs, a local‐scale catalog developed using data from the University of Utah Seismograph Stations network, and a global‐scale catalog developed using data from the International Monitoring System. Each catalog was built manually to comprehensively identify events from all sources that were locatable using phase arrival timing and directional information from seismic network stations, resulting in significant increases compared to existing catalogs. The new catalogs additionally contain challenging event sequences (prolific aftershocks and small events at the detection and location threshold) and novel event types and sources (e.g., infrasound only events and long‐wall mining events) that make them useful for algorithm testing and development, as well as valuable for the unique tectonic and anthropogenic event sequences they contain.


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 2133-2150 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-P. Issartel ◽  
J. Baverel

Abstract. An international monitoring system is being built as a verification tool for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Forty stations will measure on a worldwide daily basis the concentration of radioactive noble gases. The paper introduces, by handling preliminary real data, a new approach of backtracking for the identification of sources after positive measurements. When several measurements are available the ambiguity about possible sources is reduced significantly. As an interesting side result it is shown that diffusion in the passive tracer dispersion equation is necessarily a self-adjoint operator.


Author(s):  
A. V. Lyusak ◽  
K. M. Nikolaichuk

Relevance of the research. A scientific and theoretical analysis of the legislation in the field of monitoring of land use and protection was carried out. The problem of information imperfection on the quantitative and qualitative state of land resources, which is the basis of land monitoring, was identified. The problem of land monitoring is the imperfection of the monitoring system itself, namely the collection of information on the land state, the spread of degradation processes by various entities of monitoring. The current Regulations on land monitoring were considered and it is proposed to provide for the expansion of the types of analytical work, to adapt the European standards in the selection, transportation and storage of soil samples, to impose mandatory quality control on all works. According to the current legislation of Ukraine, the main task of monitoring is to monitor the dynamics of the processes taking place in the field of land management. Monitoring data are used in making decisions on construction, establishing permitted types of land use, which help prevent land degradation. The updated monitoring data enable public administration bodies to make appropriate demands to land users to eliminate the violations in the field of land use and protection, as well as to bring to justice those responsible for these violations. To ensure the effective functioning of the unified monitoring system, it is necessary to solve a number of organizational, technical and other problems. The main disadvantages of this system are the obsolescence of technical, methodological and information equipment of the monitoring system centers used during observations; lack of a single observation network; inconsistency of separate information technologies used by different entities of monitoring; inconsistency of normative-technical and normative-legal provision with modern requirements. These problems can be solved by creating a new network of observations, but it requires a large amount of funding. The Concepts of the State Target Program for the development of land relations in Ukraine and the Concepts of the State Program for Environmental Monitoring were considered, which provide for the improvement of the land monitoring by maximizing the existing potential and gradual improvement of organizational, legal, methodological and technical support of the monitoring system, taking into account current information needs and the recommendations of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. A necessary requirement for the effective counteraction to violations of land legislation and non-compliance with the norms of rational land use is the improvement of the regulatory framework for land monitoring. It is necessary to clearly specify the following: the purpose and objectives of monitoring as well as the methods of its implementation; main stages and steps of the land monitoring procedure; powers of the implementation entities of this procedure; basic criteria and standards for evaluating the state of land resources and crisis detection. It is also necessary to develop and legislate the procedure for Ukraine's participation in international monitoring studies on land conditions, etc. Currently in Ukraine there is no single methodology for conducting observations, due to the lack of monitoring networks, as well as a modern information system on the state of natural resources, in particular - land. According to scientists, the monitoring requirements are currently met only by agrochemical inspection of agricultural land, however, it is not monitoring: certification does not give a complete picture of land condition; it is not carried out on permanent plots and by a very limited list of indicators and focuses only on the evaluation of individual characteristics, without identifying numerous other physical, chemical and biological indicators. Conclusions. According to the current legislation, the land monitoring system is improved by defining and developing standards and regulations in the field of land use and protection, including protection and reproduction of soil fertility. Improving the land monitoring procedure in Ukraine requires the development and implementation of a set of mechanisms for coordinating the interaction and coordination of all monitoring entities using a single system of methods and technologies in planning, organizing and conducting observations and joint activities, which will facilitate the rapid response of local executive bodies and governments to the occurrence or threat of emergencies and proper control over their development and elimination of consequences. The main areas of developing the land monitoring system include: improving organizational and legal support of monitoring; establishing a single integrated monitoring system; optimizing land monitoring methods, determining and developing standards and regulations in the field of land use and protection; ensuring the integration of information resources; strengthening the coordination of the activities of monitoring entities and data management within the state system of land monitoring in Ukraine; participating in international monitoring studies on land condition and harmonization of national standards with the international ones in order to integrate the national land monitoring system in the international systems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Kusmierczyk-Michulec ◽  
Anne Tipka ◽  
Martin Kalinowski

<p>For every atmospheric radionuclide sample taken by the International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), the CTBTO makes use of operational Atmospheric Transport Modelling (ATM) to assist States Signatories in localization of possible source regions of any measured substance. Currently, ATM is accomplished by using the Lagrangian particle dispersion model (LPDM) FLEXPART driven by global meteorological fields with a spatial resolution of 0.5 degrees and 1 hourly temporal resolution. Meteorological fields are provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF ) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).  </p><p>Recent studies to increase the accuracy in the CTBTO’s localization process to be applied for specific detection events, utilizes High-Resolution Atmospheric Transport Modelling (HRATM) by using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) to generate high-resolution meteorological input data for the LPDM version Flexpart-WRF.   </p><p>This presentation uses measurements from the International Monitoring System (IMS) station DEX33 in Germany of seven episodes of elevated Xe-133 concentrations in 2014 in combination with with the stack emission data of the medical isotope production facility IRE in Fleurus, Belgium. Each episode consists of 6 to 11 subsequent 24-hour samples. Backward simulations for each sample are conducted and the sensitivity to the stack emission data are analysed. All samples determined to represent a detection of IRE releases are selected to be used for an evaluation study. </p><p>Evaluating the CTBTO’s utilization of HRATM requires to investigate the ability to localize the source region as well as the accuracy of the match and the computational performance to accomplish these results. The evaluation of HRATM results is done by using statistical metrics established during former ATM challenges. Concerning the computational performance and to account for uncertainties, sensitivity studies with varying spatial resolutions, physical parameterization variations and different regional domain setups for WRF were accomplished. This comprises a reference comparison to the operational ATM FLEXPART model with an increased spatial resolution to 0.1 degrees.   </p>


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