Citing an example, she said that modern monitoring data, also those originating from CTBTO monitoring stations, facilitate the study of man-made impacts on the atmosphere evidenced when comparing it with air trapped in ice cores. “Natural radionuclide data also registered by the monitoring system can be used to validate and calibrate weather prediction and climate models”, said Kromp-Kolb (CTBTO Spectrum, 10, July 2007, p. 23 - PDF).

Infrasound data can also be of great interest to climate change research. While infrasound data originating from extreme meteorological events are considered as disturbances when verifying compliance with the Treaty, these data acquire a different significance when studying the atmosphere. “IMS data could become an important archive for the research of the atmosphere, severe storm systems, mountain waves, etc.”, Kromb-Kolb maintained in the article.

It has long been recognized that the unique CTBT verification system offers a host of opportunities for applications in scientific research and everyday life. Representatives of States Signatories have therefore gathered at regular intervals to evaluate how best to tap into this vast potential.

Several such meetings to discuss civil and scientific applications of CTBT verification technologies have taken place.  At the first of these meetings in May 2002 in London, Peter Marshall, a seismology expert from the United Kingdom and a veteran of the CTBT negotiation process, pointed out that all potential civil and scientific applications of verification technologies depended on the availability of data.  As monitoring data and data analyses are made available to all States Signatories, it would be up to the States to allow access to these data for civil and scientific uses, Marshall said in the very first issue of the CTBTO Spectrum (see CTBTO Spectrum, 1, December 2002, p. 16 - PDF).

Further meetings on this subject took place subsequently: in Vienna in October 2002; in Sopron (Hungary) in September 2006; in Berlin in May 2004; and in Budapest in September 2006.

The last of these meetings took place immediately after the first scientific symposium organized by the CTBTO, which took place in Vienna on 31 August and 1 September 2006.  The symposium, “CTBT: Synergies with Science. 1996-2006 and Beyond”, examined ways and means to strengthen the mutually beneficial ties between the organization and scientific institutions worldwide, not least to identify possible uses of CTBT verification data and technologies in science.