Air ions as indicators of short-term indoor radon variations

Design and Implementation of an Atmospheric Anion Monitoring System Based on Beidou Positioning

Atmospheric oxygen anions play an important role in medical health, clinical medicine, environmental health, and the ecological environment. Therefore, the concentration of atmospheric anions is an important index for measuring air quality. This paper proposes a monitoring system for atmospheric oxygen anions based on Beidou positioning and unmanned vehicles. This approach combines Beidou positioning technology, 4G pass-through, the unmanned capacitance suction method, electromagnetic field theory, and atmospheric detection technology. The proposed instrument can monitor the overall negative oxygen ion concentration, temperature, and humidity in a certain region over time and provide data visualization for the concentration of negative oxygen ions.

Investigating the detection of underground nuclear explosions by radon displacement

A novel approach is proposed to detect underground nuclear explosions (UNEs) through the displacement of natural radon isotopes (²²²Rn and ²²⁰Rn). Following an explosion, it is hypothesized that the disturbance and pressurization of the sub-surface would facilitate the movement of radon from the depth of the UNE towards the surface resulting in increased soil gas activity. The resulting signal may be magnified by a factor of 2.0-4.9 by the decay of radon to its short-lived progeny. Increases in background activity may be useful for identifying locations to perform additional measurements, or as a detectable signal at monitoring stations. To validate this hypothesis, radon detection instrumentation was deployed at the Dry Alluvium Geology (DAG) site of the Source Physics Experiment (SPE) at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Natural fluctuations in the soil gas activity due to barometric pumping, and the lower yield of the chemical explosions (1-50 t) made it difficult to confirm a displacement of radon from the explosions, and further study to validate the proposed hypothesis is recommended.