What is AVIDOS?

Cosmic radiation consists of ionizing particles that originate both from outside the solar system and from the Sun. They generate secondary particles in the Earth‘s atmosphere. Some of them even reach the Earth‘s surface. People who are at higher altitudes, such as aircraft crews, are more exposed to cosmic radiation than people at sea level. During exceptional solar conditions (so-called solar storms), the radiation exposure in the atmosphere can temporarily be significantly higher than normal.

AVIDOS is based on Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic radiation transport in the atmosphere. AVIDOS is comprehensively validated by numerous measurements on-board aircraft.

AVIDOS calculates the effective dose, E, between 8 km and 15 km altitude, for each geographic location and for the entire cycle of solar activity. The effective dose, E, is the limiting radiation protection quantity related to a cancer risk to an organism due to ionizing radiation. It is recommended that the annual dose for the population should not exceed one millisievert (mSv). The annual dose limit for aircrew is 20 millisieverts (mSv). This version of AVIDOS cannot be used for legally valid radiation protection purposes. For accredited radiation protection services, please contact us.

The development of AVIDOS was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Austrian national funds through the Aeronautics and Space Agency (ALR) as part of the Austrian Promotion Agency (FFG).