[Phys-l] radiation data in the Fukushima area

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

As you know, sometimes I really like to see the raw data.

Here is some recently-released data on radiation levels in the 
Fukushima area, in the form of color-coded maps:
  http://www.meti.go.jp/earthquake/nuclear/pdf/monitor02_01.pdf  (01)
  http://www.meti.go.jp/earthquake/nuclear/pdf/monitor02_02.pdf  (02)

Note that the data is very incomplete.  You can't just look at
it from a distance and imagine that anything that's not red is
not a problem, because there are significant areas that probably
would be red but just haven't been measured.

The "01" file represents radiation in the air 1 meter above ground
level.  The "02" file represents radiation in the air 1 /centimeter/
above ground level.

Note that the 1cm readings are not uniformly higher than the 1m
readings, which suggests there is some uncertainty in the data, 
more uncertainty than I would have expected.

There is more data of this type.  Pointers can be found in
this press release:
  http://www.meti.go.jp/earthquake/nuclear/20110901.html

The press release is in Japanese.  Note that you can obtain 
passable (albeit far from fluent) translations from Japanese 
to English via
  http://translation.babylon.com/japanese/

======================

There have been hundreds of news stories that allude to this
data.  I really wish news reports that are based on a press
release would link to the original press release, so I don't
need to spend my time hunting for it.  I'm not accusing them
of plagiarism, because they dutifully attribute the data to "a
government spokesman" ... I'm just saying that it costs them
nothing to include an actual detailed link, and it would make
life a lot easier for anybody who wants to dig deeper.

If the reporters need motivation to include links, here is
one motivation:  I tend to trust a secondary source more if
it invites me to check the primary sources.