The Link Between Climate Change and Rising Incidents of Severe Turbulence in Aircraft

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What is Flight-Turbulence, its Types and Causes?
• Impact of Climate Change on Flight-Turbulence

Why in News?

• After a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore was hit by sudden and severe turbulence over Myanmar, a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin encountered severe turbulence over Turkey.
• Though flights around the world experience varying degrees of turbulence on a daily basis, the recent incidents that result in serious injuries are rarer, pointing towards the impact of explosive growth in air traffic and climate change.

What is Flight-Turbulence, its Causes and Types?

• Meaning of flight-turbulence:
  • Turbulence is an irregular motion of the air resulting from eddies and vertical currents.
  • It may be as insignificant as minor bumps or severe enough to throw an airplane out of control or to cause structural damage.
  • Turbulence is associated with fronts, wind shear, thunderstorms, etc.
• Effects of flight-turbulence:
• Types of flight-turbulence:
  • Light turbulence momentarily causes slight changes in altitude resulting in slight bumpiness.
  • During moderate turbulence, aircraft may experience more notable changes in altitude and attitude, but the plane remains well under control.
  • In severe turbulence, there are significant and sudden changes of altitude and attitude, and the aircraft could momentarily go out of control.
  • In extreme turbulence, the plane is violently tossed about and is practically impossible to control.
• Causes of flight-turbulence:
  • Mechanical turbulence: It is the result of friction between the air and the ground - irregular terrain and man-made obstacles - that leads to formation of eddies.
  • Convective or thermal turbulence: It is caused when hot air from certain ground surfaces rises rapidly while cooler air descends, resulting in convective air currents. Frontal turbulence: It is caused by the friction between two opposing air masses and the lifting of warm air by the sloping frontal surface and is most common close to thunderstorms.
  • Wind shear: It is the change in wind direction/ wind speed (in temperature inversion areas, around jet streams, etc) over a specific horizontal or vertical distance.
    • Clear air turbulence (CAT), which can be sudden and severe and is extremely difficult to forecast or see, may be considered as a type of wind shear turbulence.

Impact of Climate Change on Flight-Turbulence:

• Findings of the study: According to some studies, climate change could make turbulence more frequent and severe.
• How can this be claimed?
  • Climate change is strengthening the jet streams that cause turbulence.
  • A large increase in CAT between 1979 and 2020 in the mid and aircraft cruising altitudes.
  • Over the North Atlantic, severe/ greater CAT durations increased by more than 55% over this period.
• Future predictions:
  • The frequency of severe turbulence would increase more than that of light or moderate turbulence.
  • Not only CAT, but also mountain wave turbulence and near-cloud turbulence will intensify due to climate change.

Q.1. What is the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)?

The ICAO is a United Nations agency which helps 193 countries to cooperate together and share their skies to their mutual benefit.

Q.2. What is the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)?

The DGCA is a statutory body [under the Aircraft (Amendment) Act, 2020] of the Government of India to regulate civil aviation in India. It investigates aviation accidents and incidents, maintains all regulations related to aviation, etc.

Source: Qatar Airways flight suffers turbulence, at least 12 injured | IE