Seasonal and Lunar Month Periods Observed in Natural Neutron Flux at High Altitude

• Published in: Pure and applied geophysics Vol. 174; no. 7; pp. 2763 - 2771
• Main Authors: Stenkin, Yuri, Alekseenko, Victor, Cai, Zeyu, Cao, Zhen, Cattaneo, Claudio, Cui, Shuwang, Giroletti, Elio, Gromushkin, Dmitry, Guo, Cong, Guo, Xuewen, He, Huihai, Liu, Ye, Ma, Xinhua, Shchegolev, Oleg, Vallania, Piero, Vigorito, Carlo, Zhao, Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-07-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air; Air monitoring; Altitude; Correlation; Detectors; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earthquake prediction; Earthquakes; Environmental effects; Environmental monitoring; Fluctuations; Geology; Geophysics; Geophysics/Geodesy; High altitude; Humidity; Lunar eclipses; Measurement; Methods; Neutron flux; Neutrons; Radon; Radon levels; Scintillation; Seasons; Seismic activity; Sensors; Soil; Ventilation; radon; lunar month periods; seasonal periods; Thermal neutron
• ISSN: 0033-4553; 1420-9136
• DOI: 10.1007/s00024-017-1545-7

Air radon concentration measurement is useful for research on geophysical effects, but it is strongly sensitive to site geology and many geophysical and microclimatic processes such as wind, ventilation, air humidity and so on inducing very big fluctuations on the concentration of radon in air. On the contrary, monitoring the radon concentration in soil by measuring the thermal neutron flux reduces environmental effects. In this paper, we report some experimental results on the natural thermal neutron flux as well as on the concentration of air radon and its variations at 4300 m asl. These results were obtained with unshielded thermal neutron scintillation detectors (en-detectors) and radon monitors located inside the ARGO-YBJ experimental hall. The correlation of these variations with the lunar month and 1-year period is undoubtedly confirmed. A method for earthquake prediction provided by a global net of en-detectors is currently under study.