title: Quantifying nonstationary radioactivity concentration fluctuations near chernobyl: A complete statistical description
abstract: We analyze nonstationary 137Cs atmospheric activity concentration fluctuations measured near Chernobyl after the 1986 disaster and find three new results: (i) the histogram of fluctuations is well described by a log-normal distribution; (ii) there is a pronounced spectral component with period T=1yr, and (iii) the fluctuations are long-range correlated. These findings allow us to quantify two fundamental statistical properties of the data: the probability distribution and the correlation properties of the time series. We interpret our findings as evidence that the atmospheric radionuclide resuspension processes are tightly coupled to the surrounding ecosystems and to large time scale weather patterns.
authors.affiliation: Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215 and International Center for Complex Systems and Departamento de Fisica Teorica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 5.
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Viswanathan
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Buldyrev
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Garger
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Kashpur
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Lucena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shlyakhter
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tschiersch