55 percent increase
Severe outdoor turbulence (CAT) has already become more common, according to a study published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. On a typical flight route over the North Atlantic, there was a 55 percent increase in outdoor turbulence between 1979 and 2020. While the increase in turbulence was most pronounced over the US and the North Atlantic, the study also found significantly more turbulence on popular routes over Europe, the Middle East, the South Atlantic and the East Pacific.
“Airlines should start thinking about this”
Turbulence currently costs airlines hundreds of millions of dollars a year through injuries, flight delays, damage and aircraft wear. It is also said that every extra flight minute spent in turbulence increases these risks.
difficult to detect
Jet winds are becoming more chaotic as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels warm the troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. According to the statements, it is thought that this chaos caused by the increase in the temperature difference between the troposphere and the stratosphere triggered the increase in open air turbulence.
The study, conducted on forty years of data, found that there was an average of 9 to 14 percent increase in CAT per season for each degree Celsius of global warming. Since the industrial revolution, the world has already warmed by more than one degree Celsius. Summers, which are typically peak travel seasons with less turbulence, are expected to see a greater increase than winters, which have historically been the most turbulent seasons. “We knew it was happening, but it’s shocking to see a 55 percent increase,” Williams said, even though he knew there was an increase.