Radiation Dose Charts for Long Geodetic and Polar Flights with CARI-7A

TL;DR

This study calculates radiation doses for long flights over polar and geodetic routes using CARI-7A, providing dose charts based on flight parameters and Earth's curvature, aiding crew safety assessments.

Contribution

It introduces detailed radiation dose charts for various long-distance flights considering Earth's curvature and flight dynamics, a novel application of CARI-7A simulations.

Findings

Radiation dose increases with flight level and duration.

A thumb rule for dose estimation in the 20,000-50,000 ft altitude range.

Geographical and kinematic factors significantly influence cosmic radiation absorption.

Abstract

We have calculated by using CARI-7A the effective and ambient radiation doses absorbed by a reference human phantom inside aircrafts with cruise speed, and averaged ascent/descent rates as presented by real airplanes such as: Airbus 380, Boeing 777, 787, Hercules C-130 and Twin Otter DHC-6, in a sample of flight aerial routes in a range of flight levels. In the sample, fifteen routes are between the longest non-stop flight around the world, where four flights pass over the Arctic and we have considered one air route involving the Antarctica with two additional special cases. The Earth curvature based on model WGS84 was taken into account for every point in each route by using the INVERSE3D software. Then we constructed radiation dose charts according to the ICRP-103 conditions by using the radiometric results coming from the CARI-7A simulations. These charts present the effective absorbed radiation dose as a function of flight level and flight time in a year of normal operations of the crew as recommended by the FAA. We have also characterized geographically and kinematically the cosmic effective radiation absorption rates at Earth's atmosphere in terms of the structure and order of polynomials in the altitude. From the flight with the leading rate of irradiation we found a thumb rule to estimate the effective absorbed radiation dose and the ambient equivalent dose that gives a superior threshold for any flight of the sample and perhaps on Earth, valid in altitude interval [20000, 50000] ft.