Carlos César considered on Monday that the installation of an Infrasound Station of the International Monitoring System on Graciosa “is a project whose importance reaches further than the material dimension that it represents for this island as well as for the Azores.” 

For President of the Government of the Azores, that infrastructure – which aims to establish an effective surveillance system, in the context of the United Nations, to comply with the provisions of the nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty – “also encompasses this political and immaterial dimension, by including us as part of this global programme.”

The President of the Government also assured that the “idea of the Azores as a relevant Region in an international context is even more emphasised in this case,” which justifies the commitment of the Regional Government in the entire process.  

In addition to detecting nuclear tests and other type of events at a distance of thousands of miles, the station to be installed on Graciosa may provide an important contribution in the study of seismic and volcanic activities as well as of atmospheric phenomena.

This project counts upon the collaboration of the University of the Azores, through the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Risk Assessment, which will become the future station operator; hence a service provision contract will soon be signed.

The Graciosa IS42 Station is one of the 60 infrasound stations the of the International Monitoring System, thus allowing a better coverage of the North Atlantic area, where there are similar stations in French Guiana, Greenland, Bermuda and Cape Verde.

With an overall investment of 1.9 million Euros, the works are expected to be completed in September as well as the respective certification.

In addition to this project, the Azores have implemented similar projects – such as the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement, based also on Graciosa; the ESA Station on Santa Maria; the Pico-Nare, related to climate issues; the Green Islands; or the future geodesy and radioastronomy stations of Flores and Santa Maria, integrated in the Atlantic Network of Space Geodynamics Stations.

For the President of the Government, “all these projects bring our Region closer to new research centres. They are the result of a continuous work that has been carried out by the Government of the Azores in the management of these assets.”