Radiation exposure at a glance
08-01-2014, 09:44 AM
#1
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Radiation exposure at a glance
Expressed in a term I coin as "Sea Level Hours". I wanted a visual to correlate how much radiation we receive in cruise.
Take a look
Take a look
08-01-2014, 12:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Flightcap
Blond haired, fair skinned pilots take cover. Oh wait, that's me.
08-01-2014, 05:52 PM
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Originally Posted by CFIGUY22
Wow anything to fight against it?
A single abdominal CT scan is in the neighborhood of 8000 microsieverts.
A 6 month stay on the ISS is 80,000 microsieverts
Max allowed per year US occupational limit is 50,000 microsieverts
08-02-2014, 10:19 AM
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08-02-2014, 10:59 AM
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Originally Posted by TallFlyer
08-02-2014, 11:27 AM
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Originally Posted by sulkair
Nothing you can do. But keep in mind even a pilot that flies 1000 hours in a year in the lower 48 will at max be exposed to 4500 microsieverts. i.e. At 39,000 feet getting zapped with roughly 6 microsieverts per hour would be 6000 in a year but how much time does that pilot spend on taxiways, lower altitudes or in the climb or decent? So I'll say 25% reduction giving us 4500 microsieverts.
A single abdominal CT scan is in the neighborhood of 8000 microsieverts.
A 6 month stay on the ISS is 80,000 microsieverts
Max allowed per year US occupational limit is 50,000 microsieverts
A single abdominal CT scan is in the neighborhood of 8000 microsieverts.
A 6 month stay on the ISS is 80,000 microsieverts
Max allowed per year US occupational limit is 50,000 microsieverts
08-02-2014, 11:38 AM
#9
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Originally Posted by TallFlyer
My earlier edition was predicated only on cosmic radiation while at Sea Level. This isn't really fair when making comparisons to airborne exposure because once we take off we're no longer breathing ground air. Radon gas makes up the lions-share of natural background radiation, and terrestrial ground radiation adds some too. So I've updated the chart by factoring both of these sources into the exposure for Sea Level and Denver, but obviously not for cruise altitudes. Amazingly this reduced the comparative exposure at 39,000 feet from 154 times sea level per hour to just 21.7 times sea level per hour. Now we can breath easy
08-02-2014, 12:03 PM
#10
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AC120-61A says in part:
The recommended occupational exposure limit for ionizing radiation is a 5-year average effective dose of 20 millisieverts per year, with no more than 50 millisieverts in a single year.
Of course if you operate at higher latitudes you'll get more radiation; JFK-DXB-JVY with 12 hours at FL450 each way could be flown 40 times annually before getting to the recommended 20 millisievert annual limit.
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