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Radiation dose to the global flying population
Open accessAbstract
Civil airliner passengers and crew are exposed to elevated levels of radiation relative to being at sea level. Previous studies have assessed the radiation dose received in particular cases or for cohort studies. Here we present the first estimate of the total radiation dose received by the worldwide civilian flying population. We simulated flights globally from 2000 to 2013 using schedule data, applying a radiation propagation code to estimate the dose associated with each flight. Passengers flying in Europe and North America exceed the International Commission on Radiological Protection annual dose limits at an annual average of 510 or 420 flight hours per year, respectively. However, this falls to 160 or 120 h on specific routes under maximum exposure conditions.
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Flights at higher altitudes and closer proximity to the Earth's poles would be unlikely to continue after an extreme space weather event.
“Flights at higher altitudes and closer proximity to the Earth's poles would be unlikely to continue (Dyer et al., 2003; Jones et al., 2005; Alvarez et al., 2016).”
From A Fate Worse Than Warming? Stratospheric Aerosol Injection and Global Catastrophic Risk (2021) · cites this paper as Alvarez et al., 2016
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Cited by
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Li, X., Dunn, J., Salins, D., Zhou, G., Zhou, W., Schüssler-Fiorenza Rose, S. M., Perelman, D., Colbert, E., Runge, R., Rego, S., et al. (2017) · PLOS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2001402 · Cited by 431
A Fate Worse Than Warming? Stratospheric Aerosol Injection and Global Catastrophic Risk
Tang, A., & Kemp, L. (2021) · Frontiers in Climate · doi:10.3389/fclim.2021.720312 · Cited by 58
“Flights at higher altitudes and closer proximity to the Earth’s poles would be unlikely to continue (Dyer et al., 2003; Jones et al., 2005; Alvarez et al., 2016).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Alvarez, L. E., Eastham, S. D., & Barrett, S. R. H.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Barrett, Steven R H
- Venue
- Journal of Radiological Protection
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2016-01-15
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 93-103
- ISSN
- 0952-4746 (ISSN-L)
- 1361-6498
- OpenAlex
- W2234798449
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 0.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Radiological Protection (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Radiation Dose and Imaging
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Radioactivity and Radon Measurements
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry
- Keywords
- cosmic rays, radiation dose, civil aviation, airline passengers, aircrew, dose estimation, annual dose limits
- MeSH terms
- Aircraft, Altitude, Cosmic Radiation, Humans, Radiation Dosage, Radiation Protection, Occupational Exposure
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