Warming atmosphere disturbs the jet stream, increasing sudden altitude changes that can fling passengers and cause severe injuries or fatalities. Pilots may need to keep seatbelt signs on longer and suspend cabin service more often, and airlines will need technology to detect turbulence before it hits to protect passengers. Jet streams, driven by temperature differences, are becoming stronger and more wavy as Earth's atmosphere warms. Climate model analyses using 26 global models project that these changes will affect jet streams at typical cruising altitudes around 35,000 feet by 2100 under different emission scenarios.
A warming atmosphere causes disturbances to the jet stream - the narrow current of fast-moving air that planes fly along to get a speed boost. As a result, there will be more sudden changes in plane height, throwing people around the aircraft cabin, causing severe injuries and even death. In their new paper, experts frpm the University of Reading warn of 'profound implications for aviation safety,' as turbulence-related injuries become more common.
Because jet streams are driven by temperature differences, they are getting stronger and more wavy as Earth's atmosphere warms. However, long-term trends in jet stream behaviour and 'its role in turbulence in the context of climate change remain underexplored', the experts say. To learn more, they used 26 of the latest global climate models to work out how warming temperatures will affect jet streams at typical aircraft cruising altitudes - around 35,000 feet - by 2100.
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