[ RadSafe ] 10 rem from lightning??

[efforrer at aol.com]

Before I left UCSC I was working with the group who was doing this research.  They were having problems actually figuring out how to get the measurements because the airlines did not want to know about radiation from lightning strikes near aircraft.  Good thing to keep in mind this research was not about lightning strikes to aircraft but near aircraft.  Since they could not get the airlines to work with them in carrying measurement equipment so they could get information about when and where a lightning event occurred we played with ideas like dataloggers which would take periodic readings and record time and radiation levels.  Coupling it to a GPS was also discussed so they could figure out where the strike was.  The idea was to Fedex the package and hope for the best.  Budget problems made this sort of approach too costly.  I have no idea what they finally used.  Something to keep in mind is that these radiation events last micro or even nano seconds.  I am not sure if the dose mentioned in the article took this into consideration.  I asked the researchers what they hoped to do with the information and they basically indicated it was purely for informational purposes.  No one had measured it before.  My concern was they would get these measurements and then the whole world would get all concerned about radiation to airline passengers and crew during a lightning storm.

Gene