Forecasting clear-air turbulence
Bechtold, Peter ; Bramberger, Martina ; Dörnbrack, Andreas ; Leutbecher, Martin ; Isaksen, Lars
Forecasting severe turbulence in the free troposphere and stratosphere is challenging. The turbulence is generated by processes such as shear instabilities (Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities), upper-level fronto-genesis, large-amplitude mountain waves and breaking of convectively generated gravity waves (Ellrod & Knapp, 1992). In particular, turbulent eddies and waves with length scales of a hundred metres to several kilometres pose an important hazard to civil aviation. There is thus a great demand in aviation forecasting for reliable turbulence estimates (Sharman et al., 2014). The eddy dissipation rate (EDR), which is the cube root of the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy, and hence has units of m2/3 s-1, has become the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard for aircraft reporting and therefore the standard measure for clear-air turbulence (CAT).<br></p>
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