Vertical profiles of HTO, HDO, and H/sub 2/O in the troposphere. Technical note

Technical Report · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1974

OSTI ID:7137472

Ehhalt, D H

Most of the tritium (T) present in the environment was produced by thermonuclear explosions and injected into the stratosphere; the largest such contribution came from the Soviet test series in 1961 and 1962. Natural T production by cosmic radiation plays only a minor role. Most of the bomb tritium reacts during cooling of the fireball to form tritiated water, HTO. HTO mixes down from the stratosphere into the troposphere and accumulates in surface waters, mainly the oceans, thereby entering all stages of the hydrological cycle. HTO is therefore a tracer particularly well suited to the study of the natural water cycle. This document presents vertical profiles of tritium, deuterium, and water vapor in the troposphere that were obtained by NCAR at various times from 1966 through 1973. These data enable development of more realistic models of the transport and rainout of tritium as well as a more realistic estimate of the tropospheric residence time of water vapor. (GRA)

• Research Organization: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo. (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7137472
• Report Number(s): PB-245731; NCAR/TN/STR-100
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500300* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DEUTERIUM COMPOUNDS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EXPLOSIONS
FALLOUT
FLUIDS
GASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
LIGHT NUCLEI
MONITORING
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
SURFACE WATERS
TABLES
TRITIUM
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
TROPOSPHERE
VAPORS
WATER VAPOR
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES