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Global Atmospheric Chemical Change pp 383–421Cite as

Atmospheric Radioactivity and Its Variations

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Abstract

Within a few years of Becquerel’s discovery in 1896 of the radioactivity of uranium, it was recognised that the atmosphere itself is naturally radioactive. In1900, Wilsonl investigated the electrical conductivity of air and showed that it could be explained by low level ionisation of the air, and two years later Elster and Geitel2 showed that a negatively charged wire exposed in the atmosphere became radioactive. The same authors3 showed that soils and rocks are sources of radon and thoron, radioactive gases which will produce radioactive decay products in the atmosphere (see also Section 9.2.1).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AEA Environment and Energy, Harwell Laboratory, Oxfordshire, UK

    J. A. Garland, R. S. Cambray & C. E. Johnson

Authors
  1. J. A. Garland
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  2. R. S. Cambray
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  3. C. E. Johnson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    C. N. Hewitt

  2. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    W. T. Sturges

  3. Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    W. T. Sturges

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Garland, J.A., Cambray, R.S., Johnson, C.E. (1994). Atmospheric Radioactivity and Its Variations. In: Hewitt, C.N., Sturges, W.T. (eds) Global Atmospheric Chemical Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3714-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3714-8_9

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