The Atmosphere and Ionosphere

Abstract

The chapter reviews the physical principles of active and passive methods of remote detection of radioactive substances and toxic agents in the atmosphere. It also reviews methods of measuring the parameters of regular and/or emergency gas-aerosol emissions and clusters of radioactive and poisoning fragments and microparticles on various surfaces, which provide the means of solving a range of problems unique to environmental monitoring. Analytical possibilities of currently available active and passive methods of remote control of radioactive and highly toxic substances based on the achieve-ments of infrared absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence, laser induced breakdown spectrometry, THz (sub-terahertz [sub-Thz]) spectroscopy, etc., are discussed. With the aim of defining the validity range of methods of remote detection of radioactive substances and toxic agents in atmospheric air and on various surfaces, special attention is given to real-time determination of spectral characteristics of molecules of radioactive substances and toxic chemicals and their smallest detect-able concentrations in atmosphere as well as an analysis of the parameters of currently available laser sources and photoelectric detectors. Modern development trends of active and passive methods of remotely detecting radioactive substances and toxic agents for various spectral ranges are analyzed.