Hi From The Argus Environmental Monitoring Trust :)

I have been the coordinator of the Argus Project Monitoring Trust since it's origins in 1986 when the Chernobyl reactor exploded. We were inspired by the absence of any continuous background gamma readings, either before or after the fallout reached the UK. At the time I was privileged to have access to a Mini-680 Geiger counter and was able to observe daily background gamma readings, both before and after the Saturday when the first notably radioactive rain fell in the North of England. We noticed an increase of 80% over typical levels where the monitoring was being carried out, where all readings were taken at a fixed location in an an open grassy field. We observed the increase lasted for two weeks, after which it plateaued at a slightly lower level for a further two weeks, when it dropped back to normal levels.

I have kept spinning the plates for a small number of remote automated Argus logging computers running at various locations around the UK, all logging energy-compensated gamma every 10 minutes, some with additional weather sensors. It has only been in recent years that it has been possible for me to bring together our recent website design which now puts our stations updating readings live, into the public domain. Our site has been developed around a dedicated XML specification which is open for all to use in not dissimilar fashion to this excellent RadMon open-access facility.

The main strength of the Argus system on-line is the facility to scroll through multiple time-synchronised graphs each picked from multiple-sensor stations when selected from a Google Maps GUI. Please check it out and if anyone would like to take advantage of its facility do feel free to contact me. It has been specifically designed to handle both polling for XML data, when a fixed IP address is used, and accepting posted XML data from other stations, fixed or mobile.

We are also very interested in data exchange with other databases for which we can use our XML format or can adapt to also use other methods for data exchange.

In the mean time I greatly value this forum and look forward to learning a great deal and contributing anything that might be helpful from our project's experience in both equipment design and monitoring practice.

Graham.
For the Argus project Trust.

Welcome Graham! Good to have you on board

I noted your website lists stations in Scotland and N. Ireland, areas lacking on the Radmon Map.

ChrisH

Thank you for your welcome, I can see there is an interesting community going on here that I look forward to engaging with.

All the data can be streamed directly from our system's database for each station individually. If you, or someone you know is able and willing to convert the XML, or CSV, it may be uploaded to your system there. See the help page for contributors, it sets out the Argus XML format which is the same format we use to interrogate Argus statiosn for thier data in XML that populates the central Argus database.

I can help anyone interested in transferring data.

Graham.

Thank you for your very positive comments. Indeed yes, I am very interested in setting up a mutual arrangement whereby we can populate each other's systems with data collected.

I notice you are based in Cardiff, right now I've traveled down from Hexham in the North East and heading today to Skye Instruments in Llandrindod Wells, who are very interested to use the Argus system, installed on their server, for their many clients around the world. They are suggesting a fair number of their customers would also make their weather data public too (fed into the Argus database).

After visiting Skye I head to the Forrest of Dean for a social gathering over the weekend and then hope to head to Bath to catch up with an old friend. But coincidentally, I may well then be going to Cardiff to meet up with a good friend in the course of the week following, I'm unsure when. If I am able to get to Cardiff would you be interested in meeting up ?? Regards, Graham.

Graham, not good to put your mobile number in an open post unless you want to get spam-called to death Suggest you edit and then send a PM..