FALLOUT PROGRAM QUARTERLY SUMMARY REPORT

III I1 III11 Iiii iiiiIntroductionB-57 AIR SAMPLING PROGRAM (i960)K» Telegadas and R»J» ListUnited States Weather BureauThe U.S. Weather Bureau under contract with the Division of Biologyand Medicine, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission directed an atmospheric samplingprogram, during the month of March and early April I960, to investigate themechanisms of stratospheric-tropospheric exchange, using radioactive debrisas the tracer material* The ^950th Test Group (Nuclear), Kirtland AFB, NewMexico, supported this program with B-57 «3^t aircraft and personnel of the^926th Test Squadron (Sampling).Filter collection of airborne radioactive particulate matter were conducted over the western United States primarily in the vicinity of thetropopause and jet stream, using wing tank air sampling equipment loaned byLos Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL)* Each aircraft was equipped withtwo samplers, one on each wing tip. The samplers could be opened and closedindependently in flight, but filters could not be changed* This resulted inonly two filters per flight* The samples were collected on IPC iV/S filterpaper with an exposed radius of 13*5 inches* The characteristics of thispaper are discussed elsewhere.#An integral part of this program involved the radiochemical analysis ofthe filter paper^samples for individual radio-isotopes. This part of the project was conducted at a government laboratory and a detailed description ofthe procedure, prepared by the laboratory, will appear in a future report.The Institute of Paper Chemistry, A Study of the Filtration and PermeabilityCharacteristics of IPC lVf8 Filter Paper, D&SA 1168, February 13, I960.- 150 -