Altitude-dependent dose conversion coefficients in EPCARD.

Conversion coefficients that depend on altitude, cutoff rigidity and solar activity were developed and introduced in the European Program Package for the Calculation of Aviation Route Doses (EPCARD). A set of specially chosen long-distance flights were used to compare the new particle effective doses and ambient dose equivalents with those calculated using the previous averaged constant conversion coefficients. The data show very good agreement to each other. The dose differences for the chosen flights are <11%, for typical civil flight levels.