Cosmic radiation influence on the physiological state of aviators

Abstract

Aviation personnel exposure to cosmic radiation and its biological effects has been an interesting subject for research over the last decade. In this study, scientific groups from Greece, Slovakia, and Bulgaria collaborated in order to examine the potential effects of cosmic radiation on the cardiovascular functionality of a group of Slovak aviators. Specifically, daily data concerning mean values of arterial diastolic and systolic blood pressure, which were registered during the medical examinations of the group of aviators, were related to daily variations of cosmic ray intensity, as measured by the Neutron Monitor Station on Lomnicky Stit. Statistical methods (analysis of variance-ANOVA and method of superimposed epochs) were applied in order to establish a statistical significance (p-values) of the effect of cosmic ray intensity variations on the aforementioned physiological parameters not only on the days of the events but also on the days preceding and following these events. Results reveal that diastolic and systolic blood pressure can be influenced by changes in cosmic ray activity.

Space weather phenomena on heart rate: a study in the Greek region

“…Furthermore, geomagnetic storms and FDs of the CRI result in variations of the human physiological parameters. More precisely, high GMA and strong CRI decreases were related to HR, RR interval, SP, and DP variations (Papailiou et al 2011 , 2012 ; Mavromichalaki et al 2012 , 2021 ; Galata et al 2017 ), whereas the connection (correlation or anti-correlation) of solar, geomagnetic, and CRI variations to the number of occurrence of different types of cardiac arrhythmias was established in a number of studies (Giannaropoulou et al 2014 ; Mavromichalaki et al 2017 , 2021 ).…”

“…The statistical methods of analysis of variance (ANOVA, http://www.statisticssolutions.com/manovaanalysis-anova/ ) (Papailiou et al 2012 ; Dimitrova et al 2013 ) and of multiple linear regression analysis were applied, so as to determine the effect of cosmic rays and geomagnetic disturbances on the human physiological parameters (i.e., HR). A univariate analysis was conducted alongside, in order to evaluate the importance of the negative confounding factors.…”

“…Finally, for every level of activity, the relative mean HR values were estimated as well. A suchlike classification technique has been introduced in earlier works, e.g., Papailiou et al ( 2012 ) and Mavromichalaki et al ( 2012 ).…”

“…Over the last years, the Cosmic Ray Group of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) has intensively worked on how the human physiological state may possibly be effected by space weather phenomena and has published a significant number of scientific papers presenting the results of these investigations (Papailiou et al 2009 , 2011 , 2012 ; Mavromichalaki et al 2012 , 2017 , 2021 ; Giannaropoulou et al 2014 ; Galata et al 2017 ). In this work, an attempt to present a synopsis of the studies on heart rate (HR) variations that have been conducted by the NKUA in Greece so far is being made.…”

Interdisciplinary Analysis of Annual Space Weather Activity in Relation to Mortality Associated with Cerebrovascular Disease: A Novel Model of Solar-Terrestrial Interaction

“…Additional support for this area of research has been extended by the field of chronobiology in order to examine cycles associated with both biological and epidemiological measures, as well as related space weather variables. In particular, a range of relationships have been revealed between space weather parameters and human cardiovascular activity [16,17] and brain activity [18,19], as well as for a number of diseases including cardio-and cerebrovascular pathologies [20,21]. Of particular relevance for the current research, Zeng et al [21] recently identified strong coperiodicities in patterns of daily mortality due to both cardio-and cerebrovascular diseases in China with a number of heliogeophysical variables including solar and geomagnetic activity, as well as the interplanetary magnetic field.…”