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    NEUTRONS ON A PLANE

    Carol
    Carol
    Carol
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    Join date : 2010-04-07
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    • Post n°1

    NEUTRONS ON A PLANE Empty NEUTRONS ON A PLANE

    Post  Carol Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:06 am

    NEUTRONS ON A PLANE Bubbles_strip
    NEUTRONS ON A PLANE
    Want to experience space weather? It's easy. Just step onboard an airplane. Recently, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been monitoring cosmic radiation levels in the cabins of commercial jets. Measurements of X-rays and gamma-rays show that travelers absorb the equivalent of one or more dental X-rays on a typical flight across the USA. But X-rays and gamma-rays represent only a fraction of the total radiation evnvironment. On July 23, 2015, for the first time, they carried a neutron bubble chamber onboard. Here is what the chamber looked like at the end of a 5 hour flight from Boston to Las Vegas:

    Each of the bubbles is formed by an energetic neutron passing through the chamber. By counting the bubbles, it is possible to estimate the total dose of neutron radiation. The answer, for this particular flight, was 1240 microRads (energy range 200 keV - 15 MeV). How does this compare to ionizing radiation? X-ray and gamma-ray sensors carried onboard the same plane accumulated a lesser dose of 860 microRads (energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV).

    Lesson: When characterizing the radiation environment inside an airplane, neutrons are at least as important as X-rays and gamma-rays.

    Among researchers it is well known that neutrons are an important form of cosmic rays, providing much of the biologically effective radiation dose at altitudes of interest to aviation and space tourism. Low-energy neutrons also cause single-event upsets in aircraft avionics, especially devices that contain Boron 10.

    During the five hours of the July 23rd flight, the radiation sensors accumulated a total dose of 2100 microRads (neutrons + X-rays + gamma-rays). This is ~140 times the dose of cosmic rays at sea level during the same 5 hours.

    http://www.spaceweather.com


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    With deepest respect ~ Aloha & Mahalo, Carol
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