SITE SELECTION FOR THE IMS STATION IN RUSSIA. A RETROSPECTIVE

At the end of the 20th century, the International Monitoring System (IMS) was created, which arose in connection with the emergence of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sadovsky, who participated in a number of preparatory meetings and headed the Soviet delegation at one of the key meetings of experts on the seismic method of detecting nuclear explosions, made a great contribution to the formation of the terms of the Treaty with his knowledge and authority. M.A. Sadovsky was not only a recognized scientific authority in the field of the mechanical action of an explosion, but was also directly involved in organizing observations of nuclear explosions at experimental sites. The results obtained under the supervision of Academician M.A. Sadovsky laid the foundation for the development of seismic methods for monitoring nuclear tests. The main goal of the International Monitoring System is formulated as «facilitating the detection of any nuclear explosion» and for a long time this task remained mainly in the theoretical plane. However, the current political situation has transferred these issues from routine procedures to the newly emerging urgent tasks of timely and reliable detection of possible nuclear tests. The article describes the work that was carried out at the turn of the century in the course of selecting locations for seismic stations that later became part of the international monitoring system (IMS). The main principles and algorithms for selecting locations for seismic stations are considered based on an analysis of the experience of work on selecting sites for IMS stations in Russia. A step-by-step analysis of the basic approaches used in organizing the IMS seismic network can be useful in creating new observation systems to solve various problems.