Spatial patterns of turbulence near thunderstorms

While more rare, severe turbulence encounters can result in serious (even fatal) injuries and significant operational costs to airlines. While storms themselves are highly turbulent, they can also modify their environment in ways that lead to turbulence far from the storm.

Using limited datasets, past studies indicate moderate or greater (MoG) turbulence can extend beyond current federal guidelines for avoidance (20 mi or 32 km), but many questions remain. For example, 1) What is the spatial distribution of turbulence relative to storms? 2) What environmental factors influence the spatial distribution? Now, extensive archives of radar data and automated turbulence reports from commercial aircraft allow us to thoroughly investigate turbulence near storms.