CARE: Computation of Aircrew Radiation Exposure

Calculation of galactic cosmic radiation exposure on an aircraft flight

The galactic cosmic radiation exposure on an aircraft flight is calculated for aircrew/passengers based on either manual input or on-line data from the android phone. The input data include: flight date (month and year), departure and arrival location airports (latitude and longitude), flight altitude (feet) and flight duration (minutes). Latitude and longitude information can be entered automatically with the input of known airport codes by clicking the AIRPORT CODE LAT/LON button. If an airport code cannot be found in the internal database, the user is automatically directed to a website with the required geographic location information (i.e., latitude and longitude) for all international codes/airports, which can be manually entered accordingly. Alternatively, all input location data can be entered automatically from the on-line phone GPS (even in airplane mode) by clicking the DEPARTURE button and the ARRIVAL button at the given departure and arrival airports, respectively. The flight date is automatically entered with initiation of the DEPARTURE button, and the flight duration and a typical altitude of 35,000 ft are also automatically entered with the initiation of the ARRIVAL button. The altitude can be changed manually by the user for a different flight altitude as desired. Once all data are input, either manually or on-line, the CALCULATE button provides a calculation of the effective dose (in micro-sievert) for the flight assuming a great circle calculation for the flight.