NAIRAS

Space
Environment
Technologies

NAIRAS

Nowcast of Atmospheric Ionizing Radiation System

[Overview] [Design] [Progresss/Documents] [Stakeholders] [Gallery] [Data] [Current Dose Rates]

NAIRAS

A NASA-funded Applied Sciences Program to develop an operational prototype for a global, real-time, data-driven predictive system needed to assess biologically harmful radiation exposure levels for aviation.

OVERVIEW

Project Description: NAIRAS provides a space weather decision support tool related to radiation impacts on crew and passengers of long-range aircraft

DESIGN

System Design: A widely-distributed network architecture ensuring robustness and extensibily, linking real-time space-weather measurements with state-ot-the-art models to deliver mission-critical information

PROGRESS

Documents:Project Status, Presentations, Publications, Quarterly reports

Current Dose Rate: The NAIRAS model predicts atmospheric radiation exposure from galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar energetic particle (SEP) events. GCR particles are propagated from local interstellar space to Earth using an extension of the Badhwar and O'Neill model, where the solar modulation has been parameterized using high-latitude real-time neutron monitor measurements at Oulu, Thule, Lomnicky, and Moscow. During radiation storms, the SEP spectrum is derived using ion flux measurements taken from the NOAA/GOES and NASA/ACE satellites. The cosmic ray particles - GCR and SEP - are transported through the magnetosphere using the CISM-Dartmouth particle trajectory geomagnetic cutoff rigidity code, driven by real-time solar wind parameters and interplanetary magnetic field data measured by the NASA/ACE satellite. Cosmic ray transport through the neutral atmosphere is based on analytical solutions of coupled Boltzmann transport equations obtained from NASA Langley Research Center's HZETRN transport code. Global distributions of atmospheric density are derived from the NCEP Global Forecasting System (GFS) meteorological data.

STAKEHOLDERS

Team: Project Staff
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