Results of an aqueous source term model for a radiological risk assessment of the Drigg LLW Site, U.K.

A radionuclide source term model has been developed which simulates the biogeochemical evolution of the Drigg low level waste (LLW) disposal site. The DRINK (DRIgg Near field Kinetic) model provides data regarding radionuclide concentrations in groundwater over a period of 100,000 years, which are used as input to assessment calculations for a groundwater pathway. The DRINK model also provides input to human intrusion and gaseous assessment calculations through simulation of the solid radionuclide inventory. These calculations are being used to support the Drigg post closure safety case. The DRINK model considers the coupled interaction of the effects of fluid flow, microbiology, corrosion, chemical reaction, sorption and radioactive decay. It represents the first direct use of a mechanistic reaction-transport model in risk assessment calculations.

Retrievals of thick cloud optical depth from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) by calibration of solar background signal

Laser beams emitted from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), as well as other spaceborne laser instruments, can only penetrate clouds to a limit of a few optical depths. As a result, only optical depths of thinner clouds (< about 3 for GLAS) are retrieved from the reflected lidar signal. This paper presents a comprehensive study of possible retrievals of optical depth of thick clouds using solar background light and treating GLAS as a solar radiometer. To do so one must first calibrate the reflected solar radiation received by the photon-counting detectors of the GLAS 532-nm channel, the primary channel for atmospheric products. Solar background radiation is regarded as a noise to be subtracted in the retrieval process of the lidar products. However, once calibrated, it becomes a signal that can be used in studying the properties of optically thick clouds. In this paper, three calibration methods are presented: (i) calibration with coincident airborne and GLAS observations, (ii) calibration with coincident Geostationary Opera- tional Environmental Satellite (GOES) and GLAS observations of deep convective clouds, and (iii) cali- bration from first principles using optical depth of thin water clouds over ocean retrieved by GLAS active remote sensing. Results from the three methods agree well with each other. Cloud optical depth (COD) is retrieved from the calibrated solar background signal using a one-channel retrieval. Comparison with COD retrieved from GOES during GLAS overpasses shows that the average difference between the two retriev- als is 24%. As an example, the COD values retrieved from GLAS solar background are illustrated for a marine stratocumulus cloud field that is too thick to be penetrated by the GLAS laser. Based on this study, optical depths for thick clouds will be provided as a supplementary product to the existing operational GLAS cloud products in future GLAS data releases.

Interaction of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) with a monolayer of oleic acid at the air–water interface – A simple proxy for atmospheric aerosol

The reactions between atmospheric oxidants and organic amphiphiles at the air water interface of an aerosol droplet may affect the size and critical supersaturation required for cloud droplet formation. We demonstrate that no reaction occurs between gaseous nitrogen dioxide (1000 ppm in air) and a monolayer of an insoluble amphiphile, oleic acid (cis-9-octadecenoic acid), at the air water interface which removes material from the air water interface. We present evidence that the NO2 isomerises the cis-9-octadecenoic (oleic) acid to trans-9-octadecenoic (elaidic) acid. The study presented here is important for future and previous studies of (1) the reaction between the nitrate radical, NO3, and thin organic films as NO2 is usually present in high concentrations in these experimental systems and (2) the effect of NO2 air pollution on the unsaturated fatty acids and lipids found at the air liquid surface of human lung lining fluid.

Design and fabrication of infrared filters for remote sounding instrumentation

Cooled infrared filters have been used in pressure modulation and filter radiometry to measure the dynamics, temperature distribution and concentrations of atmospheric elements in various satellite radiometers. Invariably such instruments use precision infrared bandpass filters and coatings for spectral selction, often operating at cryogenic temperatures. More recent developments in the use of spectrally-selective cooled detectors in focal plane arrays have simplified the optical layout and reduced the component count of radiometers but have placed additional demands on both the spectral and physical performance requirements of the filters. This paper describes and contrasts the more traditional radiometers using discrete detectors with those which use focal plane detector array technology, with particular emphasis on the function of the filters and coatings in the two cases. Additionally we discuss the spectral techniques and materials used to fabricate infrared coatings and filters for use in space optics, and give examples of their application in the fabrication of some demanding long wavelength dichroics and filters. We also discuss the effects of the space environment on the stability and durability of high performance infrared filters and materials exposed to low Earth orbit for 69 months on the NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF).

Infrared filters for space-flight focal plane array applications

Infrared filters and coatings have been employed on many sensing radiometer instruments to measure the thermal emission profiles and concentrations of certian chemical constituents found in planetary atmospheres. The High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder ( HIRDLS) is an example of the most recent developments in limb-viewing radiometry by employing a cooled focal plane detector array to provide simultaneous multi-channel monitoring of emission from gas and aerosols over an altitude range between 8 - 70 km. The use of spectrally selective cooled detectors in focal plane arrays has simplified the optical layout of radiometers, greatly reducing the number of components in the optical train. this has inevitably led to increased demands for the enviromnetal durability of the focal plane filters because of the need to cut sub-millimeter sizes, whilst maintaining an optimal spectral performance. Additionally the remaining refractive optical elements require antireflection coatings which must cover the entire spectral range of the focal plane array channels, in this case 6 to 18µm, with a minimum of reflection and absorption. This paper describes the optical layout and spectral design requirements for filteriong in the HIRDLS instrument, and reports progress on the manufacturing and testing of the sub-millimetre sized cooled filters. We also report on the spectral and environmental performance of prototype wideband antireflection coatings which satisfy the requirements above.

High-performance infrared filters for the HIRDLS 21-channel focal plane detector array

The High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder is described, with particular reference to the atmospheric measurements to be made and the rationale behind the measurement strategy. The demands this strategy places on the filters to be used in the instrument and the designs to which this leads to are described. A second set of filters at an intermediate image plane to reduce "Ghost Imaging" is discussed together with their required spectral properties. A method of combining the spectral characteristics of the primary and secondary filters in each channel are combined together with the spectral response of the detectors and other optical elements to obtain the system spectral response weighted appropriately for the Planck function and atmospheric limb absorption. This method is used to demonstrate whether the out-of-band spectral blocking requirement for a channel is being met and an example calculation is demonstrated showing how the blocking is built up for a representative channel. Finally, the techniques used to produce filters of the necessary sub-millimetre sizes together with the testing methods and procedures used to assess the environmental durability and establish space flight quality are discussed.

Spectral design and verification of HIRDLS filters and antireflection coatings using an integrated system performance approach

The HIRDLS instrument contains 21 spectral channels spanning a wavelength range from 6 to 18mm. For each of these channels the spectral bandwidth and position are isolated by an interference bandpass filter at 301K placed at an intermediate focal plane of the instrument. A second filter cooled to 65K positioned at the same wavelength but designed with a wider bandwidth is placed directly in front of each cooled detector element to reduce stray radiation from internally reflected in-band signals, and to improve the out-of-band blocking. This paper describes the process of determining the spectral requirements for the two bandpass filters and the antireflection coatings used on the lenses and dewar window of the instrument. This process uses a system throughput performance approach taking the instrument spectral specification as a target. It takes into account the spectral characteristics of the transmissive optical materials, the relative spectral response of the detectors, thermal emission from the instrument, and the predicted atmospheric signal to determine the radiance profile for each channel. Using this design approach an optimal design for the filters can be achieved, minimising the number of layers to improve the in-band transmission and to aid manufacture. The use of this design method also permits the instrument spectral performance to be verified using the measured response from manufactured components. The spectral calculations for an example channel are discussed, together with the spreadsheet calculation method. All the contributions made by the spectrally active components to the resulting instrument channel throughput are identified and presented.

Reactive Halogens in the Marine Boundary Layer (RHaMBLe): the tropical North Atlantic experiments

The NERC UK SOLAS-funded Reactive Halogens in the Marine Boundary Layer (RHaMBLe) programme comprised three field experiments. This manuscript presents an overview of the measurements made within the two simultaneous remote experiments conducted in the tropical North Atlantic in May and June 2007. Measurements were made from two mobile and one ground-based platforms. The heavily instrumented cruise D319 on the RRS Discovery from Lisbon, Portugal to São Vicente, Cape Verde and back to Falmouth, UK was used to characterise the spatial distribution of boundary layer components likely to play a role in reactive halogen chemistry. Measurements onboard the ARSF Dornier aircraft were used to allow the observations to be interpreted in the context of their vertical distribution and to confirm the interpretation of atmospheric structure in the vicinity of the Cape Verde islands. Long-term ground-based measurements at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (CVAO) on São Vicente were supplemented by long-term measurements of reactive halogen species and characterisation of additional trace gas and aerosol species during the intensive experimental period. This paper presents a summary of the measurements made within the RHaMBLe remote experiments and discusses them in their meteorological and chemical context as determined from these three platforms and from additional meteorological analyses. Air always arrived at the CVAO from the North East with a range of air mass origins (European, Atlantic and North American continental). Trace gases were present at stable and fairly low concentrations with the exception of a slight increase in some anthropogenic components in air of North American origin, though NOx mixing ratios during this period remained below 20 pptv (note the non-IUPAC adoption in this manuscript of pptv and ppbv, equivalent to pmol mol−1 and nmol mol−1 to reflect common practice). Consistency with these air mass classifications is observed in the time series of soluble gas and aerosol composition measurements, with additional identification of periods of slightly elevated dust concentrations consistent with the trajectories passing over the African continent. The CVAO is shown to be broadly representative of the wider North Atlantic marine boundary layer; measurements of NO, O3 and black carbon from the ship are consistent with a clean Northern Hemisphere marine background. Aerosol composition measurements do not indicate elevated organic material associated with clean marine air. Closer to the African coast, black carbon and NO levels start to increase, indicating greater anthropogenic influence. Lower ozone in this region is possibly associated with the increased levels of measured halocarbons, associated with the nutrient rich waters of the Mauritanian upwelling. Bromide and chloride deficits in coarse mode aerosol at both the CVAO and on D319 and the continuous abundance of inorganic gaseous halogen species at CVAO indicate significant reactive cycling of halogens. Aircraft measurements of O3 and CO show that surface measurements are representative of the entire boundary layer in the vicinity both in diurnal variability and absolute levels. Above the inversion layer similar diurnal behaviour in O3 and CO is observed at lower mixing ratios in the air that had originated from south of Cape Verde, possibly from within the ITCZ. ECMWF calculations on two days indicate very different boundary layer depths and aircraft flights over the ship replicate this, giving confidence in the calculated boundary layer depth.

Physical effects in IR-coating materials

The effects of dispersion, angle of illumination and temperature in coated layers of infrared semiconductors (the IV-VI) and semiinsulators (the II-VI) are described. Examples are given of microcomputer calculations of these.

Signal detection for orthogonal space-time block coding over time-selective fading channels: the H(i) systems

One major assumption in all orthogonal space-time block coding (O-STBC) schemes is that the channel remains static over the length of the code word. However, time-selective fading channels do exist, and in such case conventional O-STBC detectors can suffer from a large error floor in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) cases. As a sequel to the authors' previous papers on this subject, this paper aims to eliminate the error floor of the H(i)-coded O-STBC system (i = 3 and 4) by employing the techniques of: 1) zero forcing (ZF) and 2) parallel interference cancellation (PIC). It is. shown that for an H(i)-coded system the PIC is a much better choice than the ZF in terms of both performance and computational complexity. Compared with the, conventional H(i) detector, the PIC detector incurs a moderately higher computational complexity, but this can well be justified by the enormous improvement.

Signal detection for orthogonal space-time block coding over time-selective fading channels: a PIC approach for the Gi Systems

One major assumption in all orthogonal space-time block coding (O-STBC) schemes is that the channel remains static over the entire length of the codeword. However, time selective fading channels do exist, and in such case the conventional O-STBC detectors can suffer from a large error floor in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) cases. This paper addresses such an issue by introducing a parallel interference cancellation (PIC) based detector for the Gi coded systems (i=3 and 4).

Orthogonal space-time block coding over time-selective fading channels: a PIC detector for the Gi systems

All the orthogonal space-time block coding (O-STBC) schemes are based on the following assumption: the channel remains static over the entire length of the codeword. However, time selective fading channels do exist, and in many cases the conventional O-STBC detectors can suffer from a large error floor in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) cases. This paper addresses such an issue by introducing a parallel interference cancellation (PIC) based detector for the Gi coded systems (i=3 and 4).

Space-time multirate blind multiuser detection for synchronous DS/CDMA systems

This paper proposes the subspace-based space-time (ST) dual-rate blind linear detectors for synchronous DS/CDMA systems, which can be viewed as the ST extension of our previously presented purely temporal dual-rate blind linear detectors. The theoretical analyses on their performances are also carried out. Finally, the two-stage ST blind detectors are presented, which combine the adaptive purely temporal dual-rate blind MMSE filters with the non-adaptive beamformer. Their adaptive stages with parallel structure converge much faster than the corresponding adaptive ST dual-rate blind MMSE detectors, while having a comparable computational complexity to the latter.

Synchronisation error resistant multiuser detection for asynchronous CDMA

Linear CDMA detectors have emerged as a promising solution to multiple access interference (MAI) suppression. Unfortunately, most existing linear detectors suffer from high sensitivity to synchronisation errors (also termed parameter estimation error), and synchronisation error resistant detectors have so far not been as widely investigated as they should have. This paper extends the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) detector, proposed previously by this author (Zheng 2000) for synchronous systems, to asynchronous systems. It has been shown that the MVDR structure is equally effective for asynchronous systems, especially for the weaker users.

Subspace-based blind adaptive multiuser detection for multirate DS/CDMA signals

The existing dual-rate blind linear detectors, which operate at either the low-rate (LR) or the high-rate (HR) mode, are not strictly blind at the HR mode and lack theoretical analysis. This paper proposes the subspace-based LR and HR blind linear detectors, i.e., bad decorrelating detectors (BDD) and blind MMSE detectors (BMMSED), for synchronous DS/CDMA systems. To detect an LR data bit at the HR mode, an effective weighting strategy is proposed. The theoretical analyses on the performance of the proposed detectors are carried out. It has been proved that the bit-error-rate of the LR-BDD is superior to that of the HR-BDD and the near-far resistance of the LR blind linear detectors outperforms that of its HR counterparts. The extension to asynchronous systems is also described. Simulation results show that the adaptive dual-rate BMMSED outperform the corresponding non-blind dual-rate decorrelators proposed by Saquib, Yates and Mandayam (see Wireless Personal Communications, vol. 9, p.197-216, 1998).