Original scientific paper

Radon chaotic regime in the atmosphere and soil

Vanja Radolić ; Department of Physics, University of Osijek, P.O. Box 144, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Branko Vuković ; Department of Physics, University of Osijek, P.O. Box 144, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Denis Stanić ; Department of Physics, University of Osijek, P.O. Box 144, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Josip Planinić ; Department of Physics, University of Osijek, P.O. Box 144, 31000 Osijek, Croatia

Abstract

Radon concentrations were continuously measured outdoors, in a basement and in soil. The readings were made every 10 minutes and the series of records were analyzed to extract phase-space dynamical information. The application of fractal methods allowed exploration of the chaotic nature of radon in the atmosphere and soil. The computed fractal dimensions, such as the Hurst exponent (H) from the rescaled-range analysis, Lyapunov exponent (λ) and attractor dimension, provided estimates of the degree of chaotic behaviour. The obtained low values of the Hurst exponent (0 < H < 0.5) indicate anti-persistent behaviour (non-random changes) of the series, but the positive values of λ have pointed out a great sensitivity to initial conditions and the deterministic chaos that appeared in the variations of the radon concentrations. The calculated fractal dimensions of attractors indicate strong influence of meteorological parameters on radon in the atmosphere and soil.

Keywords

radon concentration in atmosphere; deterministic chaos; fractal dimensions; meteorological parameters

Hrčak ID:

302001

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/302001

Publication date:

1.5.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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