THE DATA OBTAINED FROM MEASUREMENT OF RADON PROGENY AT REMOTE LOCATIONS AND VARYING ALTITUDES YIELDS VALUABLE INFORMATION ON GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA AND CONDITIONS, AND ON GLOBAL BIO-GEOCHEMICAL TRANSPORT MECHANISMS.

THE DATA OBTAINED FROM MEASUREMENT OF RADON PROGENY AT REMOTE LOCATIONS AND VARYING ALTITUDES YIELDS VALUABLE INFORMATION ON GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA AND CONDITIONS, AND ON GLOBAL BIO-GEOCHEMICAL TRANSPORT MECHANISMS. THE SURFACE GENERATION OF RADON, AND ITS SHORT HALF-LIFE PERMITS EVALUATION OF AIR MASS MOVEMENT. THIS IS OF PARTICULAR VALUE IF MEASURED ON A NEAR REAL-TIME BASIS. A REAL TIME AIR SAMPLER AND MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR RADON DAUGHTER PRODUCTS HAS THE POTENTIAL OF BEING THE MOST SENSITIVE MONITOR POSSIBLE FOR THE ABOVE MEASUREMENTS. THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN STUDIES ARE REQUIRED IN PHASE I TO IDENTIFY THE OPTIMUM AIR SAMPLING GEOMETRY, AND THE BEST COMBINATION OF DETECTOR AND SHIELD CONFIGURATION. CONCEPTUAL WORK WILL ALSO BE PERFORMED ON THE MECHANICAL SAMPLE TRANSPORT AND THE CONTROL AND DATA ACQUISITION ELECTRONICS. PARTICULAR EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON THE RUGGEDIZATION OF THE SYSTEM TO PROVIDE A COMPLETE AND SELF-CONTAINED MONITOR PACKAGE CAPABLE OF OPERATING IN HARSH CONDITIONS WHILE PERFORMING SENSITIVE SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS. IN PHASE II, THE MONITOR SYSTEM WILL BE FABRICATED AND FLIGHT TESTED TO VERIFY ITS MEASUREMENTS PERFORMANCE AND SENSITIVITY, AND ITS VALUE IN GLOBAL STUDIES.