FIELD CALIBRATION OF DOSEMETERS USED FOR ROUTINE MEASUREMENTS AT FLIGHT ALTITUDES

Intercomparisons of dosemeters used in radiation protection are performed routinely in reference radiation fields under well-defined conditions. In the case of the radiation protection of aircrew members, such reference fields either do not exist or they can be partially simulated by accelerator-based fields. Another method is to perform simultaneous measurements on board an aircraft under constant flight conditions, i.e. at defined latitude, longitude and altitude. The intercomparison presented in this work is the second one of its kind. As reference instruments, two types of tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPC) were used in comparison with different silicon detector systems. The excellent agreement of the FDOScalc code, which is based on measurements made by PTB during different phases of solar cycle 23 with the TEPC measurements and the results of the preceding project "Coordinated Access to Aircraft for Transnational Environmental Research" (CAATER) even allows the in-field calibration of the Si dosemeters.