Identification

Title

Simulated inventory and distribution of 137Cs released from multiple sources in the global ocean

Abstract

Radioactive cesium (137Cs) is distributed in the world's oceans as a result of global fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, releases from fuel reprocessing plants, and inputs from nuclear power plant accident. In order to detect future radionuclide contamination, it is necessary to establish a baseline global distribution of radionuclides such as 137Cs and to understand the ocean transport processes that lead to that distribution. In order to aid in the interpretation of the observed database, we have conducted a suite of simulations of the distribution of 137Cs using a global ocean general circulation model (OGCM). Simulated 137Cs radioactivity concentrations agree well with observations, and the results were used to estimate the changes in inventories for each ocean basin. 137Cs activity concentration from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests are expected to be detectable in the world ocean until at least 2030.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71z48g6

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-12-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-11T15:12:10.285046

Metadata language

eng; USA