Automatic measurements with the Pille-ISS thermoluminescent dosimeter system on board the International Space Station (2003–2021)

Abstract

The health risk of staying in space is a well-known fact, and the radiation doses to the astronauts must be monitored. The Pille-ISS thermoluminescent dosimeter system is present on the International Space Station (ISS) since 2003. We present an analysis of 60 000 data points over 19 years from the 90 min automatic measurements and show a 4-day-long segment of 15 min measurements. In the case of the 15 min we show that the mapping of the radiation environment for the orbit of the ISS is possible with the Pille system. From our results the dose rates inside the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) are at least 1 magnitude higher than outside.

From the 90 min data, we select orbits passing through the SAA. A statistical correlation in the SAA between the ISS altitude and monthly mean dose rate is presented with the Spearman correlation value of ${\rho }_{SAA}=0.56$. The dose rate and the sunspot number show strong inverse Pearson correlation ($R^2=-0.90$) at a given altitude.