Attenuation occurs naturally in thickness, density, and strength. In engineering, shaping substances into thin arrangements like fiber optics is a form of attenuation. Natural attenuation is related to environmental engineering and can occur through evaporation, dilution, absorption, and bioremediation. Environmental engineers design and build systems to monitor and remediate hazardous waste sites.
The attenuation, decrease or reduction of something in thickness, density or strength happens naturally. In engineering, the shaping of a substance into a thin, narrow arrangement, such as in fiber optics, is also a form of attenuation. These optical fibers allow light, sound, electrical signals, and computer data to be carried at the speed of light, but when the signals pass through other objects and start to scatter, there is a weakening of the effect.
Loss of light as it travels through a fiber optic cable, or loss of transmission from a fading signal to a computer or radio, is natural. Computer and radio signals are often boosted by the use of cell towers or routers to reproduce sounds and signals, but not break the attenuation. Attenuation is commonly measured in decibels (dB) for the linear measure by which something is transferred, such as in electromagnetic rays of light or other delineated beams and signals. Seismic activity from earthquakes is measured in the same way.
The process of natural attenuation is generally related to environmental engineering. It is measured and manifested in different ways. Evaporation, dilution, absorption and bioremediation are ways in which natural attenuation occurs.
In some cases, experts rely on naturally occurring environmental processes to clean up or mitigate sites where hazardous materials are introduced. There are times when the process needs to be monitored, due to contamination from hazardous materials released into the air, soil or groundwater. Monitoring generally begins once the cause of the contamination has been removed, such as an underground storage tank, used for oil heating or petroleum storage. The task of cleaning up a hazardous waste site requires specialization, so an environmental engineering company would be involved to ensure natural mitigation is adequate.
Environmental engineers and scientists design and build systems for the removal, remediation and monitoring of air, soil and groundwater in and around the sites to be monitored. Engineering equipment to measure various types of attenuation requires a combination of experiences. These cover the range of scientific disciplines.
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