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A comment on Is Clear Air Turbulence becoming more common?. Parent comment

Re:Is Clear Air Turbulence becoming more common? by NathanKP on Friday June 28, 2024 @03:46PM (#40824501)
As I understand it modern US airlines (Delta in specific) employ a meteorology team tasked to predict turbulence and they also run complex turbulence tracking systems that allow one plane that detects turbulence to communicate to a centralized system that allows other planes to change altitude or heading to avoid turbulent areas when possible.

Therefore both can be true at the same time: turbulence events are increasing, but we are also getting better at predicting, avoiding, and dealing with these events.

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Re:Is Clear Air Turbulence becoming more common? by panarky on Saturday June 29, 2024 @01:01AM (#40827982)
This is true.

Flight plans are now algorithmically generated to shave fuel usage.

Because weather forecasts are more accurate, the algorithms write flight plans that take the aircraft closer to storms. This saves fuel while slightly increasing the risk of severe turbulence.

Couple that with the lightweight materials used in modern aircraft, and passengers are likely to experience more frequent moderate to severe turbulence.

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