Gamma-ray line investigations with the Durham γ-ray spectrometer

An investigation of gamma-ray lines is planned using an actively shielded high purity Ge detector cooled by liquid nitrogen. The spectrometer is described; it includes a Compton polarimeter consisting of four elements of NaI(T1) around the crystal. The first flight in August 1979, was to study the variation of the counting rates of the various detectors as a function of atmospheric depth and to study the float background spectra. This could be used to assess detector performance and to estimate the locally produced gamma ray background. (U.K.)