The implementation of cosmic radiation monitoring in routine flight operation of IBERIA airline of Spain: 1 y of experience of in-flight permanent monitoring.

Since 2000 IBERIA and CIEMAT have been collaborating in experimental measurements of onboard radiation doses received by the crew of IBERIA commercial flights. As part of the IBERIA radiation protection program for aircrew members, a monitoring system for routine aircrew dosimetry has been implemented based on the conclusions from the experimental work and the code EPCARD 3.2. The system feeds the computer code with the predicted flight plans and registers the route dose in the corresponding file for each aircrew member. The radiation protection program also includes a validation of the computed doses with experimental tissue equivalent proportional counter measurements, which in 2008 had been extended with the permanent installation and continuous operation of MDU-Liulin Si spectrometers in eight A-340-300 aircraft. It is expected that these instruments would provide experimental data on the radiation received for 4500 flights per year, which is of special value to detect unpredictable solar particle events.