A Comprehensive Approach for Estimating Collective and Average Effective Doses of Galactic Cosmic Radiation Received by Pilots

Abstract

This study proposes a feasible and comprehensive approach for estimating collective and average effective doses of galactic cosmic radiation received by pilots on the basis of data in publicly available civil aviation annual statistical reports. Large uncertainties are associated with the estimation of these quantities because the radiation environment at aviation altitudes is complex, and a large number of flights operated by various air carriers is involved. A best estimate can be obtained through this approach because it considers all passenger, cargo, and charter flights operated during a long period of time instead of subjectively selecting some representative flights for dose evaluation. The approach becomes feasible and practical with the aid of a special feature called automatic batch analysis in the NTHU Flight Dose Calculator. There are two international airlines in Taiwan: China Airlines and EVA Air. As a demonstration, the collective effective dose received by the 2,513 pilots from the two airlines in 2018 was estimated to be 4,947 person-mSv, and the average effective dose per pilot was 1.97 mSv. These estimates were considered representative because they were based on all 151,526 flight segments operated that year. The assessment of the annual effective doses received by pilots in Taiwan from 2006 to 2018 was performed. The results varied in the range of 1.70–2.97 mSv because of variations in solar activity and operational flight routes. A regression model that can effectively reproduce the derived average effective dose rates on board aircraft was obtained for future application in aircrew dosimetry.