In early spring of the past decade, depositions of 137 Cs have been increasing along the coast of the Sea of Japan. The National Institute for Agro-Environmental Science (NIAES) measured the deposition of 137 Cs at the northwestern coastal area of Japan in 2006-2007 and concluded that most of this 137 Cs was wafted over Japan by san dstorms from China. The authors developed a system using long-range models of 137 Cs for simulation to find the amount of material transported. This system, which

more »

... ns on Microsoft Windows, will help identify fallout from natural phenomena or human factors like nuclear accidents. The simulated depositions of 137 Cs from East Asia in March of 2006 were compared with measurements from two resources. One source was NIAES data from the yellow sand phenomena at Sado Island and the other source was the Environmental Radiation Database in Japan for mon thly deposition data throughout the country. The simulation reproduced the arrival of the peak deposition of 137 Cs at Sado Island and the results of normalized 137 Cs depositions correlated well with monthly deposition data from the database suggesting that the deposition of 137 Cs was transported from the East Asian continent by the yellow sand phenomena.