Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Avoiding Air Turbulence

Will air carriers soon have better ways to avoid turbulence?  Two American and one British meteorology researcher may have developed an improvement in forecasting bumps in the air. They will present two papers on the subject at the 13th Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology Conference Jan. 21-24.  The conference is part of the American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA.  The papers describe a new, more consistently successful technique for forecasting clear air turbulence.  They build on a method developed earlier by one of the researchers, Donald McCann. 'A New Direction in Clear-Air Turbulence Forecasting Based on Spontaneous Imbalance, Part I: Application of Theory' will be presented by co-authors John Knox, University of Georgia; Donald McCann, McCann Aviation Weather Research; and Paul Williams, University of Reading, UK. 'A New Direction in Clear-Air Turbulence Forecasting Based on Spontaneous Imbalance, Part II: Case Studies and Statistical Results' will be briefed by co-authors McCann, Knox, and Williams.  More information is available at www.mccannawr.com