SAIRA-A Aviation Host Support

The project is for Virgin Atlantic to continue to fly radiation monitors (known as SAIRA) developed by the University of Surrey under the Space Weather Innovation, Measurement, Monitoring and Risk (SWIMMR) programme.

At present Virgin Atlantic are under contract to STFC to fly two monitors onboard aircraft. As this contract and the SWIMMR programme has come to an end Met Office will take over management of the contract from STFC.

For the best result these radiation monitors need to be flown as continuously as possible to capture increases in atmospheric radiation due to solar events, ideally across high latitude, high altitude routes as this is where the radiation effects are most acutely felt. This means that long haul carriers are preferred, in the UK this is Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. We are also intending to set up an agreement with British Airways.

Current data collected during flights has proved invaluable in validating new radiation models being developed for use by the Met Office (also under SWIMMR).