Full-spectrum modeling of mobile gamma-ray spectrometry systems in scattering media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fast, generalized modeling framework for mobile gamma-ray spectrometry systems in scattering media, enabling near-real-time spectral template generation with high accuracy across various environments.

Contribution

A novel, platform-agnostic modeling approach that significantly accelerates spectral template generation for MGRS systems, reducing computational costs by over ten million times.

Findings

Achieves a 10^7 speedup over brute-force Monte Carlo simulations.

Maintains median spectral deviations below 6%.

Applicable across marine, terrestrial, and airborne environments.

Abstract

Mobile gamma-ray spectrometry (MGRS) systems are essential for localizing, identifying, and quantifying gamma-ray sources in complex environments. Full-spectrum template matching offers the highest accuracy and sensitivity for these tasks but is limited by the computational cost of generating the required spectral templates. Here, we present a generalized full-spectrum modeling framework for MGRS systems in scattering media, enabling near-real-time template generation through dynamic, anisotropic instrument response functions. Benchmarked against high-fidelity brute-force Monte Carlo simulations, our method yields a computational speedup by a factor of $\mathcal{O}(10^7)$, while achieving comparable accuracy with median spectral deviations below 6%. The methodology presented is platform-agnostic and applicable across marine, terrestrial, and airborne domains, unlocking new capabilities for MGRS in a variety of applications, such as environmental monitoring, geophysical exploration, nuclear safeguards, and radiological emergency response.