Inter-calibration of gamma dose rate detectors on the European scale

Abstract

A project to compare the response of different detector types was started in 1996 at the Schauinsland mountain (1200 m above sea level) close to Freiburg, Germany, where the German office for radiation protection (BfS) runs a trace analysis laboratory since about 50 years. The aim of this inter-calibration experiment is to compare different gamma dose rate detector types over long periods and under rather unfavorable climatic conditions. This allows to characterise different probe types under environmental conditions and it complements the EURADOS inter-comparison exercises, which a carried out every 2 to 3 years. Both projects dealing with the harmonization of gamma dose rate data in the EU are used to derive terrestrial dose rate from the raw data. Using interpolation techniques provided by INTAMAP seasonal maps of the terrestrial dose rate could be generated. It is shown, that this information can be used for the calibration of satellite based soil moisture methods as well for the calculation of radon emission maps on the European scale, which are of interest for the research community, since Radon is used as a passive tracer in atmospheric research to examine transport processes on synoptic time scales.