GDR Germany - Federal Office for Radiation Protection19.06.2013
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The German gamma dose rate (GDR) network consists of about 1800 continuously measuring, automatic probes. In order to make data available to the public as soon as possible, the BfS publishes without prior examination of the data. Because of the large number of probes it may happen that some data is missing or shows strange signals due to failures or technical problems (see Information). It should be noted that such error can occur and that individual values may be corrupted at single stations, while the neighboring probes do not show these abnormalities.
The time series (averaged over one hour) are updated regularly every 6 hours. In the case of an exceptional increase of the GDR, the probes report their status and the measured dose rate immediately. This alerts the BfS on-call team, who check the values within a short reaction time. Often heavy rain showers provoke an increase of the GDR due to the fact that the derivatives of naturally occurring radon in the atmosphere are washed out and deposited on the ground. This may lead to short-term increases in the GDR visible in the measurements, which decays very quickly again. In any case, all new data is checked on a daily basis. This check takes place before 10:00 in the morning, thus older data is checked. The check ensures that data with technically induced errors are marked by a member of the team on duty. This marked data is not shown in the time series plots.
Note: Averaged (mean) values over one hour, partly unvalidated raw data!
Daily mean values
The time series plots represent the gamma dose rate at the station Dransfeld:
Legend for the time series
The measured dose rate depends primarily on the level of natural radioactivity in soil (terrestrial component) and on the intensity of the cosmic radiation (cosmic component). The site-specific threshold is marked as a horizontal line in the time series. If the threshold is exceeded at two adjacent stations in the network, the management centre will be alarmed to clarify the situation. Typical progressions of the gamma dose rate are summarized in the Information.