• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2020

Background: To investigate radiological effects on biota, it is necessary to assess radiation dose for flora and fauna living in a terrestrial ecosystem. This paper presents a dynamic model to assess radioactivity concentration and radiation dose of terrestrial flora and fauna after a nuclear accident. Materials and Methods: Litter, organic soil, mineral soil, trees, wild crops, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores are considered the major components of a terrestrial ecosystem. The model considers the physicochemical and biological processes of interception, weathering, decomposition of litter, percolation, root uptake, leaching, radioactive decay, and biological loss of animals. The predictive capability of the model was investigated by comparison of its predictions with field data for biota measured in the Fukushima forest area after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Results and Discussion: The predicted radioactive cesium inventories for trees agreed well with those for evergreens and deciduous trees sampled in the Fukushima area. The predicted temporal radioactivity concentrations for animals were within the range of the measured radioactivity concentrations of deer, wild boars, and black bears. The radiation dose for the animals were, for the whole simulation time, estimated to be much smaller than the lower limit (0.1 mGy·d^-1) of the derived consideration reference level given by the International Commission on Radiological Protection for terrestrial flora and fauna. This suggested that the radiation effect of the accident on the biota in the Fukushima forest would be insignificant. Conclusion: The present dynamic model can be used effectively to investigate the radiological risk to terrestrial ecosystems following a nuclear accident.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.312-323
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• 2022

This study began with the hypothesis of whether "solar radiation" and "terrestrial radiation" can be replaced by "visible radiation" and "infrared radiation", respectively. To this end, we investigated the perceptions of high school students who completed the Earth Science I course through a questionnaire to reveal how they perceived each concept. We also analyzed the descriptions and illustrations of textbooks that may have affected their perceptions. All of the students who participated in the questionnaire recognized solar radiation as radiation emitted only in the visible light region. About 35% of the students recognized convection, conduction, and latent heat as energy transfer by radiation in the Earth's heat budget. By analyzing six types of Earth Science I textbooks in the 2015 revised curriculum, we observed that two types introduced the terms "shortwave radiation" and "longwave radiation" but had no explanation for them, while the other two described solar radiation as "radiation mainly in the visible light region" or "radiation in short wavelengths". Regarding solar and terrestrial radiation in the last two types, there was no explanation for the wavelength regions, or ambiguous terms such as "short wavelength" and "long wavelength" were used. In addition, the two textbooks contained some errors in the illustration of the energy budget. Considering that textbooks described solar and terrestrial radiation without defining the exact terms for shortwave and longwave radiation, learners are likely to recognize solar and terrestrial radiation as visible and infrared radiation, respectively. This finding implies that vague statements or errors in textbooks can cause or reproduce students' misconceptions. The discussion in this study is expected to be used as a helpful reference material for teaching and learning processes regarding the Earth's radiation equilibrium and heat budget, and thereby contribute to proposing reasonable description plans for future textbook writing.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.87-100
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• 1990

For the quantitative evaluation and assessment of radiation exposure from terrestrial component of natural environmental radiation, successive thermoluminescence dosimetry and periodical in-situ gamma ray spectrometry were carried out for a period of 24 months. LiF PTFE dise TLDs and $3&{\phi}{\times}3'$cylindrical NaI(Tl)scintill ation detector in association of portable multichannel analyzer (4096 ch) were used in this study. The doses measured were evaluated and assessed in terms of effective dose equivalent. As a concomitant output, the dose equivalent due to ionizing component of cosmic ray was able to be evaluated. According to the results obtained in terms of variance weighted mean, the annual effective dose equivalents of terrestrial gamma ray and cosmic ray ionizing component in Taejeon area came out to be $564{\pm}4\;{\mu}Sv(64.8{\pm}0.5nSv{\cdot}h^{-1}$ and $300{\pm}2\;{\mu}Sv(34.3{\pm}0.2nSv{\cdot}h^{-1}$, respectively, which are reasonable comparably with that appeared in UNSCEAR Report[28]as per caput annual effective dose equivalent in 'areas of normal background radiation'.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 1991

Parameter uncertainty and sensitivity of KFOOD model for calculating the ingestion dose via terrestrial food-chain pathway was analyzed with using Monte-Carlo approach. For the rice ingestion pathway, estimated values from KFOOD code were very conservative. Most sensitive input parameters in model were deposition velocities and soil-to-plant transfer coefficient of radionuclides.

• Atmosphere
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.163-175
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• 2017

The global terrestrial ecosystems have shown a large spatial variability in recent decades and represented a carbon sink pattern at mid-to-high latitude in Northern Hemisphere. However, there are many uncertainties in magnitude and spatial distribution of terrestrial carbon fluxes due to the effect of climate factors. So, it needs to accurately understand the spatio-temporal variations on carbon exchange flux with climate. This study focused on the effects of climate factors, .i.e. temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation, to terrestrial biosphere carbon flux. We used the terrestrial carbon flux that is simulated by a CarbonTracker, which performs data assimilation of global atmospheric $CO_2$ mole fraction measurements. We demonstrated significant interactions between Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) and climate factors by using the partial correlation analysis. NEP showed positive correlation with temperature at mid-to-high latitude in Northern Hemisphere but showed negative correlation pattern at $0-30^{\circ}N$. Also, NEP represented mostly negative correlation with precipitation at $60^{\circ}S-30^{\circ}N$. Solar radiation affected NEP positively at all latitudes and percentage of positive correlation at tropical regions was relatively lower than other latitudes. Spring and summer warming had potentially positive effect on NEP in Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand as increasing the temperature in autumn, NEP was largely reduced in most northern terrestrial ecosystems. The NEP variability that depends on climate factors also differently represented with the type of vegetation. Especially in crop regions, land carbon sinks had positive correlation with temperature but showed negative correlation with precipitation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.377-381
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• 2013

The study attempted to analyze items presented in Act on safety control of radioactive rays around living environment, which has been recently enacted. The test items have been divided into cosmic rays, cosmic rays, terrestrial radiation, and byproduct, etc., and the selected locations for measurement included an airplane at 8000m in the air, mountainous area at 1000m above sea level, 15m-underground building, construction site, and seashore at 0m altitude. The test showed that, based on cosmic rays, plane at 8000m in the air had 4.91mSv/y of effective dose per year. The mountainous area at 1000m above sea level, which was chosen to measure cosmic rays and terrestrial radiation, was measured 0.35mSv higher than the seashore at 0m in altitude due to the effect of cosmic rays and terrestrial radiation from the greater height above sea level. The construction site, chosen as a location to measure byproduct, showed the highest value among the items with 6.66mSv, which is as 10times high as that of a completed building. The seashore at 0m in altitude had 5.96mSv, and, 15m-underground building, based on terrestrial radiation, was the lowest with 4.91mSv. This suggests that, despite the assumption that terrestrial radiation will have greater effect deeper underground, it did not affect inside the building significantly. This study showed that the items presented in Act on safety control of radioactive rays around living environment were not close to effective dose limit for radiation workers proposed by ICRP. However, they were between 4 and 7 times higher than that for general public. This suggests that there should be continuous research on and attention to Safe Management of Daily Surrounding Radiation Act, which is still at its beginning stage.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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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 Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.121-132
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• 1994

This study concerns about the measurement and the investigation of environmental radiation characteristics which the components and the distribution of exposure rates by terrestrial y-rays in Taegu area. $4^{'}{\phi}{\times}4^{'}$ NaI(T1) scintillation detector with a multichannel analyzer was used in the measurement of y-rays as a part of in-situ spectrometry at twenty eight different locations in this area. The conversion into the exposure rate from the measured ${\gamma}-ray$ spectrum has been carried out leading to a net exposure rate and component ones by $^{40}K,\;^{238}U$ series and $^{232}Th$ series products which are known by the major parts in the terrestrial ${\gamma}-rays$ generally. As a result, the average exposure rate by the terrestrial ${\gamma}-rays$ in Taegu area is $9.4{\mu}R/h$ and the distribution of individual exposure rates shows more or less differences between these locations even after the consideration of diurnal and yearly variations which are always involved in these measurements. The component parts of exposure rates are distributed $^{40}K\;2.9{\sim}4.6{\mu}R/h,\;^{238}U$ series $1.2{\sim}3,\;1{\mu}R/h,\;^{232}Th$ series $2.5{\sim}5.0{\mu}R/h$ over the measured locations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.52.2-53
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• 2018

A stationary Type IV (IVs) radio burst was observed on September 24, 2011. Observations from the Nançay RadioHeliograph (NRH) show that the brightness temperature (TB ) of this burst is extremely high, over 10^11K at 150 MHz and over 10^8K in general. The degree of circular polarization (q ) is between -60%~-100%, which means that it is highly left-handed circularly polarized. The flux-frequency spectrum follows a power-law distribution, and the spectral index is considered to be roughly -3~-4 throughout the IVs. Radio sources of this event are located in the wake of the coronal mass ejection and are spatially dispersed. They line up to present a formation in which lower-frequency sources are higher. Based on these observations, it is suggested that the IVs was generated through electron cyclotron maser emission.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2020

Terrestrial ecosystems influence climate change via their climate regulation function, which is manifested within the carbon, water, and energy circulation between the atmosphere and surface. However, it has been challenging to quantify the climate regulation of terrestrial ecosystems and identify its regional distribution, which provides useful information for establishing regional climate-mitigation plans as well as facilitates better understanding of the interactions between the climate and land processes. In this study, a land surface model (LSM) that represents the land-atmosphere interactions and plant phenological variations was introduced to assess the contributions of terrestrial ecosystems to atmospheric warming or cooling effects over East Asia over the last half century. Three main climate-regulating components were simulated: net radiation flux, carbon exchange, and moisture flux at the surface. Then, the contribution of each component to the atmospheric warming or cooling (negative or positive feedback to the atmosphere, respectively) was investigated. The results showed that the terrestrial ecosystem over the Siberian region has shown a relatively large increase in positive feedback due to the enhancement of biogeochemical processes, indicating an offset effect to delay global warming. Meanwhile, the Gobi Desert shows different regional variations: increase in positive feedback in its southern part but increase in negative one in its eastern part, which implies the eastward movements of desert areas. As such, even though the LSM has limitations, this model approach to quantify the climate regulation is useful to extract the relevant characteristics in its spatio-temporal variations.