ENVIRONMENTAL GAMMA-RAY SPECTROSCOPY AT REMOTE SITES WITH SATELLITE DATA-TRANSMISSION

We describe in this paper remote atmospheric measurement systems that are used in the Environmental Measurements Laboratory's (EML) Remote A tmospheric Measurements Program to measure gamma-ray emitting radionuc lides that have been collected by drawing air through highly efficient filters. The gamma-ray spectrum is transmitted to polar orbiting ARGO S satellites, transferred to a ground station, and recovered via a tel ephone link by EML's computer. The recovered NaI gamma-ray spectrum is automatically resolved using a linear least squares program. Over 200 0 NaI spectra have been received from these remote sites. These spectr a provide information on isotopes of current interest and serve as a d ata base for the future studies of other radionuclides which may becom e of interest.