Analysis of 22Na using a spectral summation technique on high-volume aerosol samples

Measurement of cosmogenic 22Na in daily aerosol samples is often difficult due to low atmospheric production rates. A new technique based upon spectral summation of sequential high-volume aerosol samples to measure 22Na is described and validated. This summation technique has broad applications to any detection system that produces sequential representative sample measurements in which radioisotopes are just below the detection limit, provided the energy calibration is stable. It is anticipated that a global dataset of this radionuclide will have many important environmental science applications.