Radiation comes in many forms and can be classified as ionizing or non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation has enough energy to remove electrons from atoms and includes gamma rays, X-rays, and alpha/beta particles. Non-ionizing radiation does not have enough energy to ionize atoms and includes visible light, microwaves, and radio waves. Radiation is measured in units like the curie and becquerel that represent radioactive decays, while exposure is measured in rads and grays representing absorbed energy doses. Radiation finds many uses in fields like medical imaging and treatment.

1. Radiation

2. Radiation In general, radiation is a process where energy emitted by one body travels in a straight line through a medium or through space. Radiation comes from the sun, nuclear reactors, microwave ovens, radio antennas, X-ray machines, and power lines, to name a few.

4. Radiation can be classified as either ionizing or non-ionizing. Non-ionizing radiation is lower energy radiation that comes from the lower part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is called non-ionizing because it does not have enough energy to completely remove an electron from an atom or molecule. Examples include visible light, infrared light, microwave radiation, radio waves, and longwave (low frequency) radiation.

5. Ionizing radiation has enough energy to detach electrons from atoms or molecules - the process of ionization. It comes from both subatomic particles and the shorter wavelength portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Examples include ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays from the electromagnetic spectrum and subatomic particles such as alpha particles, beta particles, and neutrons. Subatomic particles are usually emitted as an atom decays and loses protons, neutrons, electrons, or their antiparticles.

6. Radiation and Energy Balance of the Earth System Most of the environmental processes acting near the surface of the Earth derive their energy from exchanges of heat between the Earth and the atmosphere above. Much of this heat comes from radiant energy initially provided by the absorption of solar radiation. The absorbed energy is used to warm the atmosphere, evaporate water, warm the subsurface along with a host of other processes.

7. How is radiation measured? Measuring radiation is complex and utilizes several different units. Scientists measure the amount of radiation being emitted in the conventional unit called the curie (Ci) or the SI unit called the becquerel (Bq). These units express the number of disintegrations (or breakdowns in the nucleus of an element) per second as the element tries to reach a stable or nonradioactive state. One Bq is equal to one disintegration per second and one Ci is equal to 37 billion Bq. When measuring the amount of radiation that a person is exposed to or the amount of energy absorbed by the body's tissues, two units are used: the conventional Roentgen (or radiated) absorbed dose (rad) and the SI gray (Gy). One Gy is equal to 100 rad.

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12. Beta decay Beta-minus (β−) radiation consists of an energetic electron. It is more ionizing than alpha radiation, but less than gamma. The electrons can often be stopped with a few centimeters of metal. It occurs when a neutron decays into a proton in a nucleus, releasing the beta particle and an antineutrino. Beta-plus (β+) radiation is the emission of positrons. Because these are antimatter particles, they annihilate any matter nearby, releasing gamma photons.

14. Neutron Neutrons are categorized according to their speed. High-energy (high-speed) neutrons have the ability to ionize atoms and are able to deeply penetrate materials. Neutrons are the only type of ionizing radiation that can make other objects, or material, radioactive. This process, called neutron activation, is the primary method used to produce radioactive sources for use in medical, academic, and industrial applications. High-energy neutrons can travel great distances in air and typically require hydrogen rich shielding, such as concrete or water, to block them. A common source of neutron radiation occurs inside a nuclear reactor, where many feet of water is used as effective shielding.

16. X-ray X-rays are electromagnetic waves with a wavelength smaller than about 10 nanometres. A smaller wavelength corresponds to a higher energy according to the equation E=h⋅c/λ. ("E" is Energy; "h" is Planck's Constant; “ c" is the speed of light; "λ" is wavelength.) A "packet" of electromagnetic waves is called a photon.

17. Gamma ray Gamma (γ) radiation consists of photons with a frequency of greater than 1019 Hz.Gamma radiation occurs to rid the decaying nucleus of excess energy after it has emitted either alpha or beta radiation. 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 is composed of photons, and photons have neither mass nor electric charge. Gamma radiation penetrates much further through matter than either alpha or beta radiation. Gamma rays, which are highly energetic photons, penetrate deeply and are difficult to stop. They can be stopped by a sufficiently thick layer of material, where stopping power of the material per given area depends mostly (but not entirely) on its total mass, whether the material is of high or low density. However, as is the case with X-rays, materials with high atomic number such as lead or depleted uranium add a modest (typically 20% to 30%) amount of stopping power over an equal mass of less-dense and lower atomic weight materials (such as water or concrete).

19. Non-ionizing radiation The energy of non-ionizing radiation is less and instead of producing charged ions when passing through matter, the electromagnetic radiation has only sufficient energy to change the rotational, vibrational or electronic valence configurations of molecules and atoms. The effect of non-ionizing forms of radiation on living tissue has only recently been studied. Nevertheless, different biological effects are observed for different types of non-ionizing radiation.

20. Neutron radiation Neutron radiation is sometimes called "indirectly ionizing radiation" since so many of its interactions with matter eventually result in ionization. Neutron radiation consists of free neutrons. These neutrons may be emitted during either spontaneous or induced nuclear fission, nuclear fusion processes, or from any other nuclear reactions. It does not ionize atoms in the same way that charged particles such as protons and electrons do (exciting an electron), because neutrons have no charge.

21. Electromagnetic radiation Electromagnetic radiation (sometimes abbreviated EMR) takes the form of self-propagating waves in a vacuum or in matter. EM radiation has an electric and magnetic field component which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and to the direction of energy propagation. Electromagnetic radiation is classified into types according to the frequency of the wave, these types include (in order of increasing frequency): radio waves, microwaves, terahertz radiation, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays. Of these, radio waves have the longest wavelengths and gamma rays have the shortest. A small window of frequencies, called visible spectrum or light, is sensed by the eye of various organisms.

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25. There are microwave, radio waves, very low frequency, extremely low frequency (ELF), thermal radiation (heat) and black body radiation too.

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