The radiation environment at L2 as seen by Gaia

The radiation environment at L2 is of great importance to the science instruments of Gaia. Especially the non-ionising damage to the CCDs and the resulting increase in charge transfer inefficiency will ultimately limit the achievable science performance. With its launch in December 2013 for a nominal mission of 5 years Gaia is continuously collecting invaluable information of radiation effects on the 106 CCDs in the FPA from the analysis of the science data and dedicated calibration procedures. The paper shows first results and discusses the detected irradiation background with respect to predictions and reviews operational implications for the mission.