METHOD OF SEARCHING FOR AND IDENTIFYING IONISING RADIATION SOURCES Russian patent published in 2012 - IPC G01T1/169 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method of searching for and identifying ionising radiation sources using ionisation counters or scintillation detectors moved on the search territory (zone), involving continuous measurement of the mean speed of counting the additive mixture of a signal and a background n(t) as the detecting system moves on the investigated territory; processing the obtained measurement information by breaking the vector n(t) into exposure time sections t_exp, the duration of each of which is equal and is preferably (8-15)·t_s; determining the mean speed of counting the background b, the amplitude of the assumed signal a_m, and the position of the signal t_m on the time scale; further calculating a parameter η using the formula where t_s is the effective duration of the signal; comparing η with a threshold q₀, which is determined from given false alarm probability; and making a decision on detecting the sought object if η>q₀, wherein the obtained measurement information is processed by successively increasing the effective duration of the signal t_s (1.3±0.1) times from the minimum t_s1=4-t_∂, then t_s2=6·t_∂, t_s3=8·t_∂, … etc to the maximum value t_s≤100 s, (where t_∂ is the discretisation time interval of the vector n(t)); calculating the parameter η_j using (1) for each value t_sj, and for that value from t_sj=t_em for which the parameter assumes maximum value η_m; calculating the estimate value of the unknown distance between the detector and the ionising radiation source using the formula R*=k_k·υ₀·t_em, where υ₀ is the mean velocity of the detecting system, coefficient k_k is equal to 2.0-2.8 depending on the design of the detector.

EFFECT: high accuracy of estimating the location of a detected source.