Weather and Climate Dynamics
Weather and Climate Dynamics
WCD
Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1583-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1583-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
27 Nov 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 27 Nov 2025

Clear-air turbulence derived from in situ aircraft observation – a weather feature-based typology using ERA5 reanalysis

Ming Hon Franco Lee and Michael Sprenger

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1583-2025-supplement

Data sets

Complete ERA5 from 1940: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate Hersbach, H., Bell, B., Berrisford, P., Hirahara, S., Horányi, A., Muñoz‐Sabater, J., Nicolas, J., Peubey, C., Radu, R., Schepers, D., Simmons, A., Soci, C., Abdalla, S., Abellan, X., Balsamo, G., Bechtold, P., Biavati, G., Bidlot, J., Bonavita, M., De Chiara, G., Dahlgren, P., Dee, D., Diamantakis, M., Dragani, R., Flemming, J., Forbes, R., Fuentes, M., Geer, A., Haimberger, L., Healy, S., Hogan, R.J., Hólm, E., Janisková, M., Keeley, S., Laloyaux, P., Lopez, P., Lupu, C., Radnoti, G., de Rosnay, P., Rozum, I., Vamborg, F., Villaume, S., and Thépaut, J-N https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.143582cf

NCEP/CPC L3 Half Hourly 4km Global (60S - 60N) Merged IR V1 Janowiak, J., Joyce, B., and Xie, P. https://doi.org/10.5067/P4HZB9N27EKU

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Executive editor
In this study, a novel climatological analysis of the linkage between clear air turbulence and synoptic weather features is presented based on a combination of aircraft measurements and feature detection in reanalysis data. Detailed hypotheses are put forward on the physical processes leading to the generation of turbulence in the vicinity of Rossby wave breaking and warm conveyor belts. The results can be useful for aviation safety and turbulence forecasting in operational settings, but also for future research into the fundamental mechanisms behind clear air turbulence and its spatio-temporal variability.
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Short summary
Turbulence can occur in clear-air conditions at cruising altitude. From around 5000 clear-air turbulence events identified using aircraft measurements, nonlinear breaking of large-scale waves and rapidly ascending airstreams associated with cyclones are found concurrent with 40 % and 30 % of them respectively. The results further show that these weather systems may trigger turbulence by generating highly deformed flow or flow instability, improving our understanding of clear-air turbulence.
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