• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.317-323
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• 2014

Odyssey, one of the NASA's Mars exploration program and SELENE (Kaguya), a Japanese lunar orbiting spacecraft have a payload of Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) for analyzing radioactive chemical elements of the atmosphere and the surface. In these days, gamma-ray spectroscopy with a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been widely used for the activity measurements of natural radionuclides contained in the soil of the Earth. The energy spectra obtained by the HPGe detectors have been generally analyzed by means of the Window Analysis (WA) method. In this method, activity concentrations are determined by using the net counts of energy window around individual peaks. Meanwhile, an alternative method, the so-called Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) method uses count numbers not only from full-absorption peaks but from the contributions of Compton scattering due to gamma-rays. Consequently, while it takes a substantial time to obtain a statistically significant result in the WA method, the FSA method requires a much shorter time to reach the same level of the statistical significance. This study shows the validation results of FSA method. We have compared the concentration of radioactivity of $^{40}K$, $^{232}Th$ and $^{238}U$ in the soil measured by the WA method and the FSA method, respectively. The gamma-ray spectrum of reference materials (RGU and RGTh, KCl) and soil samples were measured by the 120% HPGe detector with cosmic muon veto detector. According to the comparison result of activity concentrations between the FSA and the WA, we could conclude that FSA method is validated against the WA method. This study implies that the FSA method can be used in a harsh measurement environment, such as the gamma-ray measurement in the Moon, in which the level of statistical significance is usually required in a much shorter data acquisition time than the WA method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.1052-1060
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• 2023

The airborne radiation monitoring has been used in geophysics for more than forty years and now it also has its important role in emergency monitoring. The aircraft background and the cosmic gamma-rays contribute to the measured gamma spectrum on the aircraft board. This adverse effect should be eliminated before the data processing. The paper describes two semiparametric methods to estimate the full spectrum aircraft background and cosmic gamma-ray contribution from spectra measured at altitudes where terrestrial contribution is negligible. The methods only assume to know possible peak positions in spectra and their full width at half maximum, that can be easily obtained e.g. from terrestrial measurement. The methods were applied to real experimental data acquired on Mi-17 and Bell 412 helicopter boards. The IRIS airborne gamma-ray spectrometer, with 4×4 L NaI(Tl) crystals, produced by Pico Envirotec Inc., Canada, was used on helicopters' boards. To obtain valid estimate of the aircraft background and the cosmic contribution, the measurements over sea and large water areas were carried out. However, the satisfactory results over inland were also achieved comparing with those acquired over large water areas.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제33권2호
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• pp.109-117
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• 2016

We explain the results of Yu et al. (2015b) of the novel sharpness angle measurement to a large number of spectra obtained from the Fermi gamma-ray burst monitor. The sharpness angle is compared to the values obtained from various representative emission models: blackbody, single-electron synchrotron, synchrotron emission from a Maxwellian or power-law electron distribution. It is found that more than 91% of the high temporally and spectrally resolved spectra are inconsistent with any kind of optically thin synchrotron emission model alone. It is also found that the limiting case, a single temperature Maxwellian synchrotron function, can only contribute up to 58⁺²³₋₁₈% of the peak flux. These results show that even the sharpest but non-realistic case, the single-electron synchrotron function, cannot explain a large fraction of the observed spectra. Since any combination of physically possible synchrotron spectra added together will always further broaden the spectrum, emission mechanisms other than optically thin synchrotron radiation are likely required in a full explanation of the spectral peaks or breaks of the GRB prompt emission phase.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.16-23
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• 2011

보다 정확한 우라늄 농축도 분석은 핵물질 관리를 위하여 중요하다. 본 연구에서는 감마선을 이용한 우라늄 농축도 분석에서 시료와 검출기 사이에 차폐체가 있는 경우와 측정시간 변화에 따른 분석결과에 대한 정확성 평가 및 오차분석을 수행하였다. 우라늄 농축도를 분석하기 위하여 FRAM (Fixed energy Response function Analysis with Multiple efficiencies)을 이용하였다. FRAM에 의한 분석결과의 정확성은 화학 분석 결과와의 비교를 통해 평가되었다. 연구결과 선원과 검출기사이에 차폐체가 존재할 경우 차폐체의 두께변화에 따른 감마선의 세기는 지수함수 형태로 감소하며 감마선에너지 피이크의 반치폭 (FWHM : Full Width at Half Maximum)은 차폐체의 두께에 영향을 거의 받지 않는 것을 보였다. 따라서 시료와 검출기 사이에 차폐체가 있는 경우의 우라늄 농축도 분석에서 FRAM을 이용한 감마선분광 분석은 유용하게 활용될 수 있다. 본 연구 결과는 차폐체 안에 우라늄이 있는 경우 핵물질 분석에 기여할 수 있을 것이 기대된다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.69-75
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• 2009

교육적 목적으로 감마선 검출기 계통의 특성에 대한 정보를 세밀하게 얻기 위하여, Delphi코드를 이용하여 전 에너지 흡수 피크 스펙트럼을 편리하게 분석할 수 있는 그래픽 사용자 인터페이스 방식의 컴퓨터 프로그램을 개발하였다. 피크는 4개의 비선형 모양함수를 사용하여 최소제곱법으로 적합하였다. 이들 4개의 비선형함수 속에 들어있는 12개의 계수값들을 사용자 인터페이스 화면에서 결정하는 과정을 상세히 서술하였다. 개발된 프로그램을 HPGe 검출기에서 측정된 1 $\mu$Ci 밀봉 점선원 $^{137)Cs$ 661KeV 감마선의 피크분석에 적용하여 계수값 탐색의 예를 예시하였다.