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The penetration depth of X-rays in water as function of photon energy. Penetration depth is a measure of how deep light or any electromagnetic radiation can penetrate into a material. It is defined as the depth at which the intensity of the radiation inside the material falls to 1/ e (about 37%) of its original value at (or more properly, just ...
Liquid water and ice emit radiation at a higher rate than water vapour (see graph above). Water at the top of the troposphere, particularly in liquid and solid states, cools as it emits net photons to space. Neighboring gas molecules other than water (e.g. nitrogen) are cooled by passing their heat kinetically to the water.
Both alpha and beta particles have an electric charge and mass, and thus are quite likely to interact with other atoms in their path. Gamma radiation, however, is composed of photons, which have neither mass nor electric charge and, as a result, penetrates much further through matter than either alpha or beta radiation.
Ionizing radiation creates high-speed electrons in a material and breaks chemical bonds, but after these electrons collide many times with other atoms eventually most of the energy becomes thermal energy all in a tiny fraction of a second. This process makes ionizing radiation far more dangerous per unit of energy than non-ionizing radiation.
Once that happens, radiation can travel far enough that the local emission, B λ (T), can differ from the absorption of incoming I λ. The altitude where the transition to semi-transparency occurs is referred to as the "effective emission altitude" or "effective radiating level." Thermal radiation from this altitude is able to escape to space.
An overview of absorption of electromagnetic radiation.This example shows the general principle using visible light as a specific example. A white light source—emitting light of multiple wavelengths—is focused on a sample (the pairs of complementary colors are indicated by the yellow dotted lines).
Radiation waves may travel in unusual patterns compared to conduction heat flow. Radiation allows waves to travel from a heated body through a cold non-absorbing or partially absorbing medium and reach a warmer body again. [14] An example is the case of the radiation waves that travel from the Sun to the Earth.
Diffusion cloud chamber with tracks of ionizing radiation (alpha particles) that are made visible as strings of droplets. In dosimetry, linear energy transfer (LET) is the amount of energy that an ionizing particle transfers to the material traversed per unit distance. It describes the action of radiation into matter.