"Dark Lightning" Could Expose Airline Passengers To Radiation 263
mbstone writes "Lightning researcher Joseph Dwyer of the Florida Institute of Technology claims that thunderstorms unleash sprays of X-rays and even intense bursts of gamma rays which could cause airline passengers to receive in an instant the maximum safe lifetime dose of ionizing radiation — the kind that wreaks the most havoc on the human body. Dwyer hopes his sensor aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, will provide more data."
FUD summary as usual (Score:5, Informative)
It's an interesting claim and I look forward to hearing more about it but there is effectively no risk to people flying being suggested. Unfortunately /. has decided to focus on the non-existent risk rather than the rather interesting properties of 'dark lightning' and what study of it could help us to understand.
Re:Flying abobe clouds (Score:5, Informative)
Don't most planes fly above the storms?
Not necessarily. Airliners in which I have flown commonly go no higher than 36,000 feet - occasionally perhaps 40,000 feet. The tops of thunderstorms often reach 55,000 feet and can be even higher. One extreme case reached about 70,000 feet. Moreover, it is necessary to fly well above the tops of the visible clouds, as bad things can happen up to a mile higher. Check out, for instance, http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/152684/ [airliners.net]
So pilots almost always opt to fly around storms instead.
Re:Why haven't we seen the effects then? (Score:5, Informative)
Should be really easy to study - are aircrew more likely to suffer the ill effects of ionizing radiation, whatever those are.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/557340.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Re:Flying abobe clouds (Score:5, Informative)
I thought flight levels were odd-only starting at and above FL290 — or do the airliners in which you fly not adhere to flight levels?
Not since 2005 in the U.S. - under a program called Reduced Vertical Separation Minima, the 2000-foot separations apply at FL410 and above. Below that, it's based on heading (or actually ground track); 0-179 will be assigned odd FLs; 180-359 get assigned even FLs.
Re:Why haven't we seen the effects then? (Score:5, Informative)
It's been studied. Airline pilots get more melanoma than the rest of us, probably from hanging out on nice beaches too much. They don't get any of the other cancers you'd predict from large bursts of x-rays or gamma rays any more than anybody else.
Re:s/aluminum/aluminium/g (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum#Etymology [wikipedia.org]
The scientist who first named the actual element settled on the name aluminum, which matches the oxide to the elemental name, alumina -> aluminum, as is consistent with other oxides. It is not incorrect, and predates the -ium use.
Re:Hrmmm (Score:2, Informative)
If he doesn't know that an 1/4" layer of aluminum can stop ionizing radiation, then he's not much of a researcher.
Either that or every airplane has LOTS of holes in them.
Re:Hrmmm (Score:4, Informative)
If this were actually the case then I can think you would be seeing a disproportionate number of pilots and flight attendants getting cancer. Anyways it's something that is hopefully already being considered anyways as it's a fact that flying at higher altitudes increases your exposure to radiation anyways because of the lack of shielding from the atmosphere.
Also concord planes*(at least some) have radiation dosimeters any spikes caused by dark lightning must either be extremely rare or are not being announced by people who operate the sensors on planes.
*http://www.iaasm.org/documents/Cosmic_Radiation.pdf
Re:What is this "maximum safe lifetime dose"? (Score:3, Informative)
Radation dammage comes in two forms. Massive doses can cause acute dammage; 'radiation poisoning' and kill you quickly.
Radiation exposure can also trigger cancers at any dose.
Nuclear regulatory agencies use the "linear, no threshold" model for guaging radiation exposure risk. Essentialy, any ionizing radiation absorbed by your body has a chance of triggering a cancer. The more exposure you have, the more chances you have.
Think of it this way: every unit of radiation exposure is like a cancer lottery ticket.
You can buy a few tickets and your chances of winning are slim but the more tickets you buy, the more chances you get. Buying 10 tickets a day for the rest of your life doesn't cause any accumulation of your likelihood to win, it just gives you more and more chances at the same odds.
Studying and being aware of our exposure and taking reasonable steps to minimize it is both reasonable and prudent.
Re:Hrmmm (Score:4, Informative)
Just avoid anything that contains the word "benzoate". Any of those substances mixed with any number of acids can produce benzene. Easier to just avoid sodium/potassium benzoate entirely than to worry about combinations.