Systems and methods for real-time energy and dose monitoring of an X-ray linear accelerator

A linear accelerator comprising:

• a magnetron;
• a target;
• an electron gun, wherein the electron gun is configured to generate a beam of X-rays by directing an accelerated beam of electrons at the target;
• a primary collimator positioned along a direction of the beam of X-rays;
• a secondary collimator positioned to receive the beam of X-rays exiting the primary collimator;
• an attenuating element positioned within an aperture of the primary collimator;
• a calorimeter positioned within the aperture of the primary collimator;
• a reference detector positioned proximate the secondary collimator and configured to generate data indicative of an X-ray radiation dose output for at least some pulses of the beam of X-rays;
• a detector configured to detect at least a portion of the beam of X-rays and generate image data;
• and
• a computing device comprising programmable logic and in data communication with the detector and reference detector, wherein the computing device is configured to use said data indicative of the X-ray radiation dose output to perform at least one of a) correcting the image data by calculating a reference correction factor for at least one of said pulses and applying said reference correction factor to pixel values in the raw image data to generate normalized pixel values and b) normalizing the image data by acquiring a reference correction factor from the reference detector and using a function of the reference correction factor and data indicative of an amount of light per pixel in the image data to calculate a value that is independent of the X-ray radiation dose output.