Severe turbulence encounters can force airlines to ground and inspect affected aircraft upon arrival, thereby losing operational capability and decreasing the efficiency of their fleet operations; in the worst cases, severe turbulence can also lead to passenger and crew injuries. And those instances seemingly have been increasing in recent months, with some high-profile incidents garnering worldwide attention.
Often, airlines do not have access to severe turbulence encounter information until after the aircraft lands, which causes delays in the inspection operations and lengthens the grounding of the aircraft.
Aireon, with its space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) data, has developed a method to detect in near-real-time severe turbulence encounters at a global scale, which can be implemented to provide additional awareness to air traffic stakeholders, allowing for rapid response both in terms of airborne and on-ground operations, as this white paper outlines.
Aireon’s turbulence calculation uses the aircraft position, altitude, and velocity reports from Aireon space-based ADS-B data to infer the encounter with turbulence phenomena. The main parameters used are the geometric and barometric altitude, the geometric and barometric vertical rate, and the airborne ground vector information, all of which are readily available in ADS-B reports.
Aireon is currently undertaking work to further develop this methodology, to include turbulence detection during all phases of flight, as well as the identification of precursors for these turbulence events.
Want to learn more? Download our technical paper or get in touch.
