| dc.description | 7Be is a naturally occurring radioisotope produced in the upper atmosphere when at mospheric oxygen and nitrogen react with cosmic induced protons and neutrons. This
process is called spallation. Measurements of 7Be are used to determine the changes
in the upper Atmosphere, such as sudden changes in weather, in the considered area.
Measuring 7Be concentrations in the environment can be used to figure out whether there
is an effect from a nuclear release in the area considered. This is the first measurement
of 7Be since there are no other records to be found about the concentration of 7Be in Sri
Lanka. Especially since Sri Lanka is located near the equator, it is important to predict
the behaviour of 7Be around the equator. The radioisotope 7Be decays into 7Li with
a half-life of 53.22 days and emits a characteristic gamma ray of 477 keV. 7Be quickly
attaches to dust particles in the upper atmosphere and falls to the Earth’s surface. The
concentration of the isotope can vary due to wind, rain, temperature, and many other
environmental factors. This experiment was done to obtain the concentration value of
7Be at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The measurement was done using samples
of surface air from in-situ gamma spectrometry. The average concentration of 7Be using
the in-situ gamma spectrometry method was 3.1 ± 0.4 mBq m−3
. The primary purpose
of obtaining this measurement was to establish a reference value for 7Be concentration in
Sri Lanka. This reference value will serve as a basis for conducting further studies that
utilize 7Be as a naturally occurring tracer in various research applications can be done
using 7Be as a naturally occurring tracer. | en_US |
