Dr Marc Duldig, UTAS Hon Research Associate, will be presenting this lecture on behalf of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) and the UTAS School of Maths & Physics.
Daedalus warned his son Icarus not to fly too close to the sun. Is there anything in this idea?
Cosmic rays are the source of increased radiation dose received by passengers and crew flying in jet aircraft (and astronauts of course) and he dose depends first on altitude and second on magnetic latitude. Thus the warning of Daedalus (if not the reason or it) may have some merit. On rare occasions, solar flares can produce significant amounts of cosmic radiation that that reach the Earth and increase the radiation dose significantly. An introduction to cosmic rays and their interaction in the atmosphere is presented leading to a discussion of jet aircraft passenger and crew radiation dose exposure during passenger flights of current and planned aircraft. The impact of solar cosmic rays on this dose is then discussed. Finally, using proxy data to ascertain the impact of a very large solar cosmic ray event that occurred in 774-5 AD, a worst case scenario will be considered and mitigation strategies presented.
FREE PUBLIC LECTURE – ALL WELCOME