Air Crew Exposure to Cosmic Rays — Challenges and Management

Exposures of aircraft crews to cosmic radiation depend not only on the changing geomagnetic shielding along the air routes and the changing solar activity during the solar cycles. They are also influenced by operational factors of airline business, seasonal cycles and economic impacts. Doses to aviation personnel vary with age, professional status and social ties: e.g. younger cabin personnel usually receive higher annual doses than their counterparts. Higher exposed groups experience also larger changes of their annual doses along the solar cycle. The physical, economic and social factors influence the frequency distribution of doses and make it difficult to measure effects of optimization. Optimization of radiation protection for aircraft crews can consider the allocation of crews within the frame of airline business requirements and interests of the personnel. Route calculation programs can include the route dose as an additional optimization factor beside fuel costs and flight time. A global view on the development of aviation business should consider the development of ultra-long distance aircraft and the enormous increase of long-haul routes, in particular across the North Pole. On an international level radiation protection of aircraft crews should seek for cooperation with national and international stakeholder organisations of aviation in order to gain synergetic effects of flight safety and radiation protection. The German central dose registry analysed the official dose monitoring data of all German aircraft crews between 2004 and 2012, i.e., in the decreasing period of solar cycle 23 and the increasing phase of solar cycle 24. The data cover monthly exposures of up to 40,000 pilots and flight attendants. (author)