DISTRIBUTION OF AIRBORNE RADIOACTIVITY

133

particles between 0.3 and 1.1 in diameter with only minor components
of very small (<0.3 u) particles. On the other hand, the short-lived
natural radon daughter products (RaB + C) are associated with much
smaller particles with the major part of the activity attached to aerosol
particlés of less than 0.3 u in diameter. The longer-lived natural radioisotope ?!°Pb, because of its longer average residence time in the
atmosphere, behaves more like the fission products.

The size distribution of the fission products found at ground level
is quite unlike that expected for the stratospheric source from which
these fission debris are derived. The long residence time of this material in the stratosphere precludes the presence there of any considerable quantity of larger particles; it might be supposed that the particlesize range would be similar to that found by Junge and Manson for
nonradioactive stratospheric aerosols.’ Indeed, it would appearlikely
that the smaller particles from nuclear explosions would soon become
attached to the inactive aerosols and would partake in the growth
processes involving those aerosols.
The filter-pack technique shows considerable promise as a means
of obtaining information on the size distribution of aerosols. Its utility
is not limited to the study of radioactive aerosols but is applicable to

the sizing of any kind of airborne particulate matter for which suitable
analytical methods are available. The techniques of radioactivity measurement, chemical and activation analyses, etc., may be equally suit-

able provided the filters employed have sufficiently low backgrounds of
interfering substances.

REFERENCES
1. U. 8S. Naval Research Laboratory, Final Report; Greenhouse, Project B-29
and Project B-28, Report NRL-3963, Mar. 3, 1952. (Classified)
2. L. B. Lockhart, Jr., and R. L. Patterson, Jr., Filter Pack Technique for

Classifying Radioactive Aerosols by Particle Size.

Part 1. Preliminary Re-

port and Evaluation, Report NRL-5970, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory,
Aug. 16, 1963.
3. L. B. Lockhart, Jr., R. L. Patterson, Jr., and W. L. Anderson, Characteristics of Air Filter Media Used for Monitoring Airborne Radioactivity, Report NRL-6054, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory, Mar. 20, 1964.

4. M.H. Wilkening, Natural Radioactivity as a Tracer in the Sorting of Aerosols

According to Mobility, Rev. Sci. Instr., 23: 13 (1952).
5. R. A. Baus, P. R. Gustafson, R. L. Patterson, Jr., and A. W. Saunders, Jr.,
Procedure for the Sequential Radiochemical Analysis of Strontium, Yttrium,
Cesium, Cerium, and Bismuth in Air-filter Collections, Report NRL-Memo758, U. 8. Naval Research Laboratory, November 1957.
6. L. B. Lockhart, Jr., R. L. Patterson, Jr., and A. W. Saunders, Jr., Filter

Pack Technique for Classifying Radioactive Aerosols by Particle Size.

Part

2. Isotopic Fractionation with Particle Size, Report NRL-6164, U.S. Naval
Research Laboratory, October 1964.
7. C. E. Junge and J. E. Manson, Stratospheric Aerosol Studies, J. Geophys.
Res., 66: 2163-2182 (1961).

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