QARM - QinetiQ Atmospheric Radiation Model

There is growing concern about the effects of radiation in our atmosphere and its effects on aircraft flight crews and avionics. Highly energetic cosmic rays and solar flare particles can penetrate the Earth's atmosphere generating cascades of secondary particles which can induce bit-flips in computer chips and even permanent failure of some microelectronics devices. At typical aircraft altitudes, where the intensity of the radiation is approximately three-hundred times greater than at sea-level, radiobiological effects on frequent flyers (particularly flight crews), has led to the introduction of EU legislation requiring companies to estimate or monitor cumulative dose of employees at risk.

The QinetiQ Atmospheric Radiation Model (QARM) is a comprehensive, web-based, atmospheric radiation model to predict particle fluxes and radiobiological dose for altitudes of 1-20km for any point on the Earth. This physics-based model uses a database of atmospheric response matrices generated from detailed radiation transport software, which consider particles up to 1TeV (1012eV) energy incident upon the atmosphere. QARM takes into consideration the shielding effects of the geomagnetic field, and much higher radiation levels are experienced for high-latitude routes taken by many long-haul flights. Using a simple web-page interface, the user can use QARM to predict the radiation environment for ambient conditions (affected only by galactic cosmic rays) or he/she may select specific solar particle events and assess the dose/fluxes received by crews and equipment for these enhanced conditions.

QARM predictions compared with CREAM radiation detector measurements for executive jet flight from Shanghai to the UK