long-haul flights
Climate change is also to blame for this: Flight turbulence could occur much more frequently in the future
Renowned researchers from Great Britain found out that climate change is primarily responsible for the increase in turbulence on long-haul flights (symbol image)
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Researchers warn of an increase in turbulence during long-haul flights. Climate change is responsible for this.
Many air travelers are familiar with the phenomenon of turbulence. Suddenly you sag for a few seconds or are briefly pulled up out of your seat. When the machine slides through colliding bodies of air moving at different speeds, things can get uncomfortable. Severe turbulence can make even experienced flyers nervous. Usually everything calms down again quickly, but sometimes passengers injure themselves – sometimes with serious consequences – on their journey.
About 65,000 flights in the US experience mild turbulence each year, CNN reports. At about 5,500 even heavy. Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Reading in the UK, believes that climate change is changing the nature, amount and magnitude of turbulence and began a detailed analysis of the issue back in 2013, which was published by the Royal Meteorological Society this spring became. “We ran some computer simulations and found that severe turbulence could double or triple in coming decades,” he told CNN.
Climate change creates instability
Climate change is primarily responsible for changing the so-called jet streams, i.e. air currents at high altitudes, and making them more unstable overall, as the “world” explained the phenomenon back in 2019. This leads to shear forces and these then to turbulence: “We were able to show that the vertical forces have increased by 15 percent since 1979,” Paul Williams and his colleagues are quoted as saying.
The results, which were later confirmed by observations, highlight a type of turbulence called “clear air turbulence” that is not related to visible perturbations such as storms or clouds. Unlike normal turbulence, these occur very suddenly. But that’s what matters Not that flying will be any less safe in the future.”Planes aren’t going to fall out of the sky because planes are built to very high specifications and can withstand the worst turbulence imaginable,” Williams told CNN’s Average Duration However, the turbulence will increase.” Normally you expect ten minutes of turbulence on a transatlantic flight. I think that in a couple of decades this could increase to 20 minutes or half an hour.”
Sustainable fuel required
Incidentally, the phenomenon of turbulence also occurs on shorter flight routes, which generally take place at lower altitudes, but has other causes. In short, mostly short-term weather phenomena are decisive here, which in their effect – similar to “breaking off” jet streams – can cause similarly unpleasant consequences.
“The airline industry certainly takes the issue very seriously,” said Sara Nelson, a United flight attendant with 26 years of experience, via CNN. She is also President of the Association of Flight Attendants, a union representing 50,000 flight attendants. However, for example, “the transition to sustainable fuel” must be accelerated in order to deal with the climate crisis.” However, if nothing changes, it is to be feared that the aviation industry will contribute to the turbulence by continuing to produce high levels of conventional kerosene – especially during long-haul flights – will continue to increase.
Sources: Royal Meteorological Society, CNN, “Welt”