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Science Quickly

Radar Scans Detail North Korean Nukes

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2018

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scientists have added radar info to seismic data, isotope measurements and optical imagery to study covert nuclear tests. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visitacolkot.co.j.p.

0:23.9

That's y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P.

0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

This is Scientific American's 60-second science.

0:37.2

I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:39.0

North Korea has promised to close its underground nuclear test site at Mount Montaup later this month.

0:45.1

Shortly thereafter, President Trump is set to meet North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore.

0:50.3

Regardless of how that goes, there is now an additional tool to investigate covert

0:54.5

subterranean tests, radar, specifically a type called synthetic aperture radar, which works

1:00.9

day and night and through clouds. Scientists already use seismic data in their nuclear detective

1:06.7

work. You know, we use the kind of techniques that earthquake seismologists use to figure out

1:11.8

some aspects of what that explosion did. Roland Bergman, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley.

1:19.6

He says they can also measure isotopes in the air, as well as optical images pre and post-exposure

1:24.4

explosion. Now Bergman and his team have used synthetic aperture radar data

1:28.9

from German and Japanese satellites to gather more clues about North Korea's biggest blast

1:33.9

in September 2017. Comparing before and after scans of the test site, their analysis found

1:40.0

that the mountain bulged a dozen feet in one direction and sunk a foot and a half.

1:45.4

Using computational modeling, they then simulated what sort of blasts could have produced

1:49.4

those movements. In their estimate, the blast was at least six times as strong as the bomb the

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