Pilots report an average of 5,500 encounters with severe turbulence or more each year. This number has increased in recent years due to climate change.
Experts believe extreme weather could increase in the coming years as severe weather continues around the world.
Why is the chaos getting worse?
Turbulence is any irregular and unexpected change in air traffic that affects the altitude and movement of the aircraft.
This can range from a mild concussion to a violent fall that causes nausea or injury, such as hitting your head on a chair. The main causes of turbulence caused by commercial aircraft include storms, atmospheric pressure and jet streams.
In general, pilots use their eyes, radar, and reports from other aircraft to spot storms and other signs of impending turbulence before the aircraft begins to shake. This gives them time to operate the ‘fasten their seat belt’ sign and instruct passengers to sit down.
But pilots also have to deal with outside chaos, which is chaos for no apparent reason.
External turbulence can cause the aircraft to shake and shake before the pilot can give warning, making it particularly dangerous – and it’s this type of turbulence that is increasing due to climate change.
The relationship between climate change and clean air disturbances
The main cause of external turbulence is the sudden change in wind speed and direction, especially in jet streams.
“When the wind blows from the west at 100 mph at 30,000 feet, and from the north at 30 mph,” said Stephen Bennett, chair and co-founder and chief climate chairman of the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Monetary Weather and Climate Risks. Just 20,000 feet or below can be too turbulent for a plane moving between those two altitudes, the Demex Group official said.
In other words, it leads to an unstable jet stream and faster winds. Both play an important role in clean air turbulence, and changing global temperatures have increased the effect by 15% since 1979.
Additionally, there tends to be clean air turbulence around high-level jet streams where airplanes often fly. These fast winds are fueling global warming, said Isabel Smith, a meteorologist and doctoral student at the University of Reading and lead author of a 2023 paper on trends in external disturbances in the North Atlantic.
Rising greenhouse gases draw heat into the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere closest to the surface, Smith said.
However, this heat has to be released into the next layer, the stratosphere.
As a result, the stratosphere cools rapidly while the troposphere warms globally.
“This increases the temperature gradient between the two layers, which strengthens the jet stream, creating an unstable airflow and increasing fresh air turbulence,” Smith said.
Weather researchers also predict that external disturbances will double by 2050, with more severe disturbances than others.
Outdoor turbulence causes the majority of weather-related accidents on flights. And distraction is generally the leading cause of injury to flight attendants.
Although experts predict that the effects of climate change will worsen, you probably shouldn’t worry about additional disruptions to flights in the future.
And while climate change may make flying seem more dangerous, it’s not that simple – it’s likely that air-guidance systems will likely adapt so that flights avoid areas of high turbulence.
Smith added that serious illnesses are extremely rare. However, he added that airlines try to avoid chaos as much as possible. Therefore, increased turbulence is likely to lead to more complex flight paths, which can mean longer travel and holding times, as well as increased jet fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
In fact, avoiding disruptions could cost airlines an additional $22 million per year and an additional 70 million kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions, Smith said. A research letter found that airplanes can spend about 2,000 extra hours in the air each year.
Source: ScienceAlert
Source: Arabic RT
