FlightRadiation
The radiation dose of a year in the air.
Add every flight you take in a typical year — each route, whether it's round-trip, and how often you fly it. Each leg runs through the FAA's CARI-7 cosmic radiation model, the same one used to certify aircrew exposure, and the PDF totals your annual effective dose in microsieverts: benchmarked flight by flight against ICRP-103 limits, a chest X-ray, and the natural background dose everyone gets at ground level.
- MODEL
- FAA CARI-7 / CARI-7A
- STANDARD
- ICRP-103 (2007)
- OUTPUT
- PDF, annual itinerary dose
- TURNAROUND
- Instant
Fig. 1. Galactic cosmic ray flux penetration vs. altitude. Effective dose rate at FL390 (11.9 km) is approximately 100× surface background, and rises further at high geomagnetic latitudes.
Sample report: a frequent flyer's year
Three routes — a weekly-ish JFK–SFO hop, a few London trips, one long-haul to Singapore. This is the whole report for that itinerary. Your flights replace every value below.
2.1 The itinerary
| JFK ↔ SFO · round trip ×10 | 708 µSv/yr |
| LAX ↔ LHR · round trip ×3 | 536 µSv/yr |
| LHR ↔ SIN · round trip ×1 | 161 µSv/yr |
2.2 Total dose for the year
2.3 What that is worth knowing
The single long-haul to Singapore is the biggest per-trip dose, but the short JFK–SFO hop flown ten times a year is the biggest annual contributor — half the total. Frequency, not distance, is what moves your year. It becomes worth tracking when a route is flown often, or during pregnancy.
2.4 How the year compares
Values in microsieverts (µSv). Medical-imaging and background doses from ICRP and NCRP-184 reference tables.
2.5 Where the dose concentrates
This itinerary sits at 1.40 mSv/yr — past the 1 mSv annual ICRP public reference level, but under half the natural background dose. Drop the JFK–SFO hop to five round trips and the year falls to about 1.05 mSv; the report shows you which leg to change first.
2.6 Reference levels (ICRP-103)
| Public, non-occupational (annual) | 1 mSv |
| Pregnancy, whole gestation | 1 mSv |
| FAA aircrew action level (annual) | 6 mSv |
| Occupational limit, averaged 5 yr | 20 mSv/yr |
Method
The model, the assumptions, and the limits.
FAA CARI-7 / CARI-7A
A galactic cosmic radiation calculation grounded in the same transport model the FAA publishes for aircrew dosimetry. The flight's dose rate is set by its cruise altitude and how far the great-circle route runs toward the poles, integrated over the flight time.
ICRP-103 (2007)
Effective dose uses ICRP-103 tissue weighting factors. We report against ICRP-103 public, occupational, and gestational reference levels, not the older ICRP-60 values still seen in some operator documentation.
What we need from you
Your flights: for each route, the two airports, whether it's round-trip, and how many times a year you fly it. Add as many as you like. We derive the cruise altitude from each route and total the dose across the whole itinerary. There is no account to create.
What this report is not
This is a dose estimate, not a medical diagnosis. Individual risk depends on age, sex, prior exposure, and stochastic factors outside the model. It does not model a solar particle event unless one is known to be in progress.
Put a real number on your year of flying.
Add your flights. Get back a CARI-7 / ICRP-103 dose figure for each one and a total for the year, benchmarked against everyday comparisons like a chest X-ray and the annual background dose.
Build your itinerary
Add each flight you take in a year. We integrate CARI-7 against every route, weight by ICRP-103, total the dose, and generate the PDF the moment your payment clears, usually in a few seconds.