Variation in airborne 134Cs, 137Cs, particulate 131I and 7Be maximum activities at high-altitude European locations after the arrival of Fukushima-labeled air masses

Abstract

The Fukushima-labeled air mass arrival, and later the cesium-134 (¹³⁴Cs), cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs) and particulate iodine-131 (hereafter noted ¹³¹I_p) maximum levels were registered in Europe at different dates depending on the location. Most of those data were obtained at low-altitude sampling areas. Here, we compare the airborne levels registered at different high-altitude European locations (from 850 m to about 3500 m). The integrated ¹³⁷Cs activity concentration was not uniform with regard to the altitude even after a long travel time/distance from Japan. Moreover, the relation of integrated ¹³⁷Cs vs. altitude showed a linear decrease up to an altitude of about 3000 m. A similar trend was noticed for ¹³¹I_p (particulate fraction) while it increased above 3000 m. Comparison with ⁷Be activity concentration showed that, as far as the high altitude location is concerned, the ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³⁴Cs maximum concentrations corresponded to the ⁷Be maximum, suggesting downdraft movements from high tropospheric or stratospheric layers to be responsible for ^137,134Cs increase and peak values. This was also confirmed by high potential vorticity and low relative humidity registered during the peak values.

Keywords: (134)Cs; (137)Cs; Europe; Fukushima; High-altitude; Radionuclide; Vertical distribution.