A New Approach for the Determination of Dose Rate and Radioactivity for Detected Gamma Nuclides Using an Environmental Radiation Monitor Based on an NaI(Tl) Detector.

To expand the application of dose rate spectroscopy to the environment, the method using an environmental radiation monitor (ERM) based on a 3' × 3' NaI(Tl) detector was used to perform real-time monitoring of the dose rate and radioactivity for detected gamma nuclides in the ground around an ERM. Full-energy absorption peaks in the energy spectrum for dose rate were first identified to calculate the individual dose rates of Bi, Ac, Tl, and K distributed in the ground through interference correction because of the finite energy resolution of the NaI(Tl) detector used in an ERM. The radioactivity of the four natural radionuclides was then calculated from the in situ calibration factor-that is, the dose rate per unit curie-of the used ERM for the geometry of the ground in infinite half-space, which was theoretically estimated by Monte Carlo simulation. By an intercomparison using a portable HPGe and samples taken from the ground around an ERM, this method to calculate the dose rate and radioactivity of four nuclides using an ERM was experimentally verified and finally applied to remotely monitor them in real-time in the area in which the ERM had been installed.

Weekly variability of precipitation induced by anthropogenic aerosols: A case study in Korea in summer 2004.

We examine the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the weekly variability of precipitation in Korea in summer 2004 by using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. We conduct two WRF simulations including a baseline simulation with empirically based cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentrations and a sensitivity simulation with our implementation to account for the effect of aerosols on CCN number concentrations. The first simulation underestimates observed precipitation amounts, particularly in northeastern coastal areas of Korea, whereas the latter shows higher precipitation amounts that are in better agreement with the observations. In addition, the sensitivity model with the aerosol effects reproduces the observed weekly variability, particularly for precipitation frequency with a high R at 0.85, showing 20% increase of precipitation events during the weekend than those during weekdays. We find that the aerosol effect results in higher CCN number concentrations during the weekdays and a three-fold increase of the cloud water mixing ratio through enhanced condensation. As a result, the amount of warm rain is generally suppressed because of the low auto-conversion process from cloud water to rain water under high aerosol conditions. The inefficient conversion, however, leads to higher vertical development of clouds in the mid-atmosphere with stronger updrafts in the sensitivity model, which increases by 21% cold-phase hydrometeors including ice, snow, and graupel relative to the baseline model and ultimately results in higher precipitation amounts in summer.