CTBTO: Station HA04 of Crozet Islands certified!
On 19 June 2017, the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) certified the hydroacoustic station HA04 of Crozet Islands, a few months after its installation in December 2016. This certification marks the completion of the hydroacoustic segment of International Monitoring System (IMS) of the CTBTO.
The eleventh and final hydroacoustic station of the International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) was certified on 19 June 2017.
This is a decisive step that attests the nominal operation of the station since its installation, in December 2016. For several months, the quality of the data received from the station and their availability have been tested and evaluated against the stringent standards of the Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) of the CTBTO. The certification of station concludes this testing phase and allows for station HA04 to enter in standard data production mode with the International Data Center (IDC) at CTBTO headquarters in Vienna.
This certification also marks the completion point of the hydroacoustic segment of the International Monitoring System of the CTBTO, which is composed of a total of 11 stations located as follows:
- Cap Leeuwin, Australia (HA01),
- Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada (HA02),
- Juan Fernandez Islands, Chile (HA03),
- Crozet Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Territories (HA04),
- Guadeloupe, French Caribbean (HA05),
- Socorro Island, Mexico, (HA06),
- Flores, Azores Islands, Portugal (HA07),
- Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territories (HA08),
- Tristan da Cunha, UK (HA09),
- Ascension, UK (HA10),
- Wake Island, USA (HA11).
Of the aforementioned stations, HA04 of Crozet has arguably presented the CTBTO with one of its greatest installation challenges, due to its localization in one of most remote and inhospitable places on Earth, in between the roaring 40s and the furious 50s. Shipment of personnel and equipment is only possible during certain periods of the year, requires several weeks of transportation and is made further complex by the fact that Crozet belongs to a protected natural area.
Below are two videos released by the CTBTO on the installation of the HA04 station:
More information :
- CTBTO Press release on certification of station HA04 (Crozet Islands, France) ;
- Inventory of the CTBTO stations installed on French territories (CTBTO website)
- Introduction to the CTBTO on the Permanent mission website (in French)
- French Southern and Antarctic Lands ;
- The official blog of the Crozet district.