Assessment of the Radiation Environment at Commercial Jet Flight Altitudes During GLE 72 on 10 September 2017 Using Neutron Monitor Data

Abstract

As a result of intense solar activity during the first ten days of September, a ground level enhancement occurred on September 10, 2017. Here we computed the effective dose rates in the polar region at several altitudes during the event using the derived rigidity spectra of the energetic solar protons. The contribution of different populations of energetic particles viz. galactic cosmic rays and solar protons, to the exposure is explicitly considered and compared. We also assessed the exposure of a crew members/passengers to radiation at different locations and at several cruise flight altitudes and calculated the received doses for two typical intercontinental flights. The estimated received dose during a high-latitude, 40 kft, $\sim$ 10 h flight is $\sim$ 100 $\mu$Sv.

arXiv comment16 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Properties of Ground Level Enhancement Events and the Associated Solar Eruptions during Solar Cycle 23
• Neutron Monitor Yield Function: New Improved computations
• First analysis of GLE 72 event on 10 September 2017: Spectral and anisotropy characteristics
• Results from The Latin American Giant Observatory Space Weather Simulation Chain
• Analysis of the ground level enhancements on 14 July 2000 and on 13 December 2006 using neutron monitor data

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Current status and possible extension of the global neutron monitor network
• Galactic Cosmic Rays and Solar Energetic Particles in Cis-Lunar Space: Need for contextual energetic particle measurements at Earth and supporting distributed observations