GPS stations can detect clandestine nuclear tests
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - 17:30
in Earth & Climate
At the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization meeting, American researchers are unveiling a new tool for detecting illegal nuclear explosions: the Earth's global positioning system (GPS). Even underground nuclear tests leave their mark on the part of the upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere, the researchers discovered, when they examined GPS data recorded the same day as a North Korean nuclear test in 2009.