Abstract
Turbulence is a major factor affecting flight safety and its study is of great importance in order to improve air transports quality. Aviation-scale turbulence is recorded in situ by commercial aircraft through the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) programme. In this study, we analyze a plethora of AMDAR records for an 11-year period (2008–2018) over Europe. The available indicator of turbulence is the Derived Equivalent Vertical Dust Velocity (DEVG), which is an aircraft-independent metric. We focus on two flight level layers, below 5000-ft MSL and over 20,000-ft MSL in order to study the low-level and upper-level heavy-severe (H–S) turbulence, respectively. The seasonal variability is discussed, and the impact of possible turbulence sources is analyzed. Moreover, the vertical distribution of H–S turbulence records is presented. We found a strong impact of the jet stream in the records of the upper-level turbulence events over Europe and an increased number of low-level turbulence events in the southern regions. Low-level H–S turbulence encounter frequencies present a more distinct cycle with a maximum during late spring and early summer and a minimum during autumn months. This seasonal cycle seems to shift a few months later in the upper-level turbulence frequencies with the maximum occurring during late summer and autumn. Moreover, the diurnal variability of the low-level turbulence revealed a maximum before sunrise and a maximum over the continental areas during the midday hours of spring and summer.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the HNMS but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of the HNMS.
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Gerogiannis, V.T., Feidas, H. An 11-year analysis of in situ records of aviation-scale turbulence over Europe. Theor Appl Climatol 145, 941–953 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03676-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03676-z