About the nature of regional thermal anomaly in Semipalatinsk Test Site region Original Research Article

Thermal anomaly with area more than 20,000 km2 was revealed using space pictures in Semipalatinsk Test Site. It is observed every year in certain days, mainly at winter–spring period. Mostly, it appears in days of intensive precipitations, possible thawing of snow blanket and is accompanied by decreasing of ozone concentration in the atmosphere. Such behaviour of thermal anomaly is explained in the article by nuclear reactions caused by the energy of radioactive decay of radionuclides, which have been deposited in soil after surface and air explosions, and by radiolysis in soil solutions.