Analysis of the evolution of gross alpha and gross beta activities in airborne samples in Valencia (Spain)

Five Years (2014–2018) of Beta Activity Concentration and the Impact of Synoptic and Local Meteorological Conditions in Bilbao (Northern Spain)

“…Beta activity concentrations in the aerosol samples range from 1778 µBq/m 3 to 35.45 µBq/m 3 , with an average over the five years of 520.12 ± 281.77 µBq/m 3 , where the uncertainty is given as the sample standard deviation. These levels are consistent with those reported in other studies conducted in the different areas of Spain, such as in the south [9,24,25], in the east [8], and in the west [11].…”

“…In addition, the alpha/beta ratio was calculated for each week. The average was 0.138, which is close to the normal ratio of 0.1 [3] as well as to other values obtained in Spain (0.14 in Salamanca (west) [11]; 0.1 in Malaga (south) [9]; 0.2 in the Canary Islands (south) [13]; and close to 0.1 in Valencia (east) [8]). Nevertheless, despite the fact that the 7 Be values show seasonality and annual periodicity, the correlation with the beta activity values is negligible, with acorrelation value of 0.16, which is similar to the value obtained in the Canary Islands (0.16) [13].…”

“…The understanding of aerosol gross activity concentrations and the detection of activity peaks or anomalies in a region is then based on the evaluation, analysis, and identification of the main meteorological scenarios and parameters influencing them, such as rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and wind speed and wind direction. In this sense, several studies have explained the variation of gross beta activities and their relationship with meteorological parameters in the Iberian Peninsula, such as Sáez-Muñoz et al, 2018, in Valencia (east) [8]; Dueñas et al, 1999, andCabello et al, 2018, in Malaga (south) [9,10]; García-Talavera et al, 2001, in Salamanca (west) [11]; and Rodas Ceballos et al, 2016, [12] and Hernández et al, 2005, [13] in the Balearic and Canary Islands, respectively. However, and to the authors' knowledge, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, which as different meteorological and climatic conditions, there is a lack of studies analysing gross beta activity concentrations and their link with meteorological conditions.…”

Exposure to Particle Beta Radiation in Greater Massachusetts and Factors Influencing Its Spatial and Temporal Variability

“…Beta activity concentrations were log-transformed, as this improved the normality of the model residuals. Possible covariates were selected a priori based on existing literature ,,,, and the covariate list was then refined to improve model fit. Our final mixed-effect model can be written as follows where Y i,t is the log-beta activity at monitor i on day t , s () is the cubic smoothing spline function with six degrees of freedom per year, and β 2 ...β 9 are the effects of the measured meteorological covariates x 2 through x 9 : relative humidity, temperature and squared temperature, inverse planetary boundary layer height, accumulated precipitation, soil moisture, snow depth, and pressure.…”

“…However, previous studies have measured gross beta activity using methods similar to the method used by RadNet. These studies have demonstrated that most beta activity is attributable to the long-lived radon progeny 210 Pb, which emits beta radiation when it decays. − In studies that measured both particulate alpha and beta activities, the ratio of gross alpha to gross beta was similar to the average atmospheric ratio of 210 Po (the primary long-lived alpha-emitting radon progeny) to 210 Pb. ,, In addition, studies have found a strong correlation between particulate alpha and beta activity. − These results suggest that the gross beta activity concentrations measured by the RadNet system are primarily due to 210 Pb, and that gross beta activity is likely correlated with gross alpha activity.…”