Do gravity waves cause clear-skies airplane turbulence?

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gravity waves, mysterious waves ripple unseen throughout atmosphere, may major source of airplane turbulence, new study suggests.

new findings, presented tuesday here @ annual meeting of american geophysical union, may explain why planes shaky in apparently clear skies. forecasting waves may allow planes reroute around them.

"just waves on ocean, approach beach, can amplify , break. gravity waves in atmosphere can amplify , break, , we're finding that's major contributor turbulence in atmosphere affects aircraft."

gravity waves form when air traveling , down in atmosphere meets resistance. instance, clouds rising in troposphere, lower level of atmosphere air mixes freely, bump against boundary of more stable stratosphere, forming ripples in process. these waves can travel 180 miles (300 kilometers) before breaking, said robert sharman, meteorologist @ national center atmospheric research (ncar), conducted study.

"they're waves running around in atmosphere time," sharman told livescience.

sharman , colleagues wanted understand when , these waves occur. collected data commercial aircraft flight recorders, record location, duration , intensity of turbulence.

re-created these turbulent events using computer simulation models atmosphere. found gravity waves "break" on surfaces of planes, ocean waves breaking on beach, causing of turbulence occurs out of blue in clear air. in past, pilots thought airplanes moving , down in jet stream caused such turbulence.

many of waves formed in storm clouds tracked jet stream, traveled miles away , broke in areas airplanes flying. big mountains colorado rockies form gravity waves air flows on mountains , overshoots reaches other side. [ photos: world's tallest mountains ]

luckily, gravity waves don't span large height in atmosphere, it's pretty easy airplanes avoid such waves, sharman said.

"they either climb on or go beneath it," said.

team using simulations forecast gravity waves throughout world. while forecasts can predict waves' occurrence of time, need reach 85 percent accuracy before pilots use such predictions avoid choppy air, said.

"anytime change course, costs airlines fuel. have pretty that forecast right before they'll make deviation," said.

live science tia ghose

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