title: Analysis of22Na using a spectral summation technique on high-volume aerosol samples.
abstract: Measurement of cosmogenic22Na in daily aerosol samples is often difficult due to low atmospheric production rates. A new technique based upon spectral summation of sequential high-volume aerosol samples to measure22Na is described and validated. This summation technique has broad applications to any detection system that produces sequential representative sample measurements in which radioisotopes are just below the detection limit, provided the energy calibration is stable. It is anticipated that a global dataset of this radionuclide will have many important environmental science applications.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, 775 Brookfield Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: ian.hoffman@canada.ca.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, PO Box 17000, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, PO Box 17000, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, 775 Brookfield Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ungar
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis*; D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D002138:Calibration; D057230:Limit of Detection; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D012979:Sodium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive; D012979:Sodium Radioisotopes
keywords: Cosmogenic radionuclides; Environmental radioactivity; Environmental tracers; Low-level radioactivity measurement; Spectroscopy