7Be spatial and temporal pattern in southwest of Europe (Spain): Evaluation of a predictive model

This study presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of the cosmogenic radioisotope 7Be measured in surface air in ten stations over Spain for a 9 years period (from January 2006 to December 2014). Besides the analysis of 7Be seasonal and inter-annual variability, 7Be frequency distributions and its correlations with meteorological variables observed in the 10 sampling sites were investigated. The second part of this paper focuses on a feasibility study for the application of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to predict monthly 7Be activity concentrations using meteorological variables, PM10 concentrations and the sunspot number as input parameters. Notwithstanding the low correlations found between 7Be and input parameter, the performance of the ANNs, as evaluated by the relevant statistical parameters, demonstrates their capability to correctly predict 7Be monthly activities in the 10 Spanish sampling sites.