Estimating atmospheric radon deviation using statistical coefficients: Sulaymaniyah city, Iraq, as a case of study.

Abstract

The authors studied the atmospheric radon concentration with associated meteorological parameters variation during the dust events from July to November 2017. We obtained the meteorological parameters data in weather station of Sulaymaniyah city, Iraq. In the environmental monitoring plan, the atmospheric radon fluctuated from 15 to 48 Bq m^-3 around the mean value of 31.5 ± 7 Bq m^-3 within the summer. In autumn, varied from 22 to 46 Bq m^-3 with a mean value of 34 ± 12 Bq m^-3. We employed this to determine the radon level anomalously. Using the modified statistical coefficients, such as the residual deviation (RD), residual fluctuation ratio (RFR), F-test, and p-value coefficients. Among the atmospheric radon fluctuation values, particularly one anomalous (42 Bq m^-3) on 25 July was determined because the excessive value of the RD was 1.9 σ, and the RFR value was 66 %. Corresponding to our coefficients criteria, the minimum level of atmospheric radon (22 Bq m^-3) does not consider anomalous because of increasing wind speed. Based on this, our method for determining the atmospheric radon anomalies that are influenced by the missed factors beyond the mentioned meteorological parameters is accurate.