TY - GEN
T1 - Monitoring precipitation and lightning via changes in atmospheric gamma radiation
AU - Greenfield, M. B.
AU - Domondon, A.
AU - Tsuchiya, S.
AU - Tomiyama, G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2003 American Institute of Physics.
PY - 2003/8/26
Y1 - 2003/8/26
N2 - Atmospheric γ-radiation has been measured since 1999 and recently at three elevations 220m from the first site to ascertain position dependency and optimal elevation for observing γ-rays from radon and radon-progeny found in precipitation. Radiation from time-independent and diurnal components was minimized in order to ascertain the reliability, accuracy and practicality of determining precipitation rates from correlated γ-rates. Data taken with 4-12.9cm3 NaI detectors at elevations above ground of 9.91, 14.2, 15.7, and 21.4 m were fit with a model assuming a surface and/or volume deposition of radon progeny on/in water droplets during precipitation which predicts γ-ray rates proportional to the 2/5 and/or 3/5 power of rain rates, respectively. With mostly surface deposition and age corrections for radon progeny, the correlation coefficients improved with elevation and reached a maximum at 0.95 around 20m. Atmospheric γ radiation enables monitoring precipitation rates to 0.3 mm/h with time resolution limited only by counting statistics. High γ-ray rates, decreasing with 40-minute half-life following lightning may be indirectly due to ions accelerated in electric field.
AB - Atmospheric γ-radiation has been measured since 1999 and recently at three elevations 220m from the first site to ascertain position dependency and optimal elevation for observing γ-rays from radon and radon-progeny found in precipitation. Radiation from time-independent and diurnal components was minimized in order to ascertain the reliability, accuracy and practicality of determining precipitation rates from correlated γ-rates. Data taken with 4-12.9cm3 NaI detectors at elevations above ground of 9.91, 14.2, 15.7, and 21.4 m were fit with a model assuming a surface and/or volume deposition of radon progeny on/in water droplets during precipitation which predicts γ-ray rates proportional to the 2/5 and/or 3/5 power of rain rates, respectively. With mostly surface deposition and age corrections for radon progeny, the correlation coefficients improved with elevation and reached a maximum at 0.95 around 20m. Atmospheric γ radiation enables monitoring precipitation rates to 0.3 mm/h with time resolution limited only by counting statistics. High γ-ray rates, decreasing with 40-minute half-life following lightning may be indirectly due to ions accelerated in electric field.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.1619837
DO - 10.1063/1.1619837
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85041804320
T3 - AIP Conference Proceedings
SP - 820
EP - 825
BT - Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry
A2 - Duggan, Jerome L.
A2 - Hall, Margaret
A2 - Morgan, Ira Lon
PB - American Institute of Physics Inc.
T2 - 17th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry
Y2 - 12 November 2002 through 16 November 2002
ER -