How To: Measure North Korea’s Nuclear Blast

WC-135W Constant Phoenix. Photo from FAS.

From The Danger Room:

North Korea’s official mouthpieces are crowing about a successful nuclear weapons test. But how do we know what really happened? By checking the seismic data, scouring the satellite images — and sending in the “Constant Phoenix.”

Measurement and signature intelligence — a.k.a. MASINT — is one of the key disciplines for detecting a nuclear event. It starts with seismic data. The U.S. Geological Survey yesterday reported an earthquake in North Korea that measured 4.7 on the Richter scale. That’s more powerful than the tremors that resulted from North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006 – which the U.S. Geological Survey estimated at 4.2 (the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization gave it 4.0; The South Koreans put it between 3.58 and 3.7).

Read more ....