SatCAT: Using satellite data to improve safety and routing efficiency in the aviation industry.

Turbulence is an important safety consideration for commercial air transport: Crashes caused by turbulence are exceedingly rare, but injuries to passengers and crew are a weekly occurrence. It can often strike without warning, particularly "clear air turbulence" that is very difficult to detect, meaning that the seat belt sign may be switched off and people will be moving about the cabin. In this situation, people can be thrown off their feet, injuring themselves in the process, and any loose items (such as laptops) can become hazardous projectiles.

Airlines and pilots therefore plan routes that avoid potential areas of turbulence and - once in the air - will alter course whenever possible if they suspect severe turbulence is ahead. This, however, relies on adequate warning being available: It is impossible to avoid turbulence if you do not know it is there. Weather forecasts provide turbulence warnings, but these are often inaccurate - showing turbulence where none exists or failing to forecast turbulence when it does exist. Similarly, it is very hard to detect turbulence from the cockpit. Clear air turbulence is invisible and storm-associated turbulence is hard to decipher. A particular challenge is to work out by how far an aircraft needs to avoid storm clouds in order to remain clear of turbulence.

In this fellowship, I aim to increase our knowledge of turbulence in order to help to provide new guidance to pilots on how to avoid storm turbulence. I will produce a new method that will detect turbulence from space using the latest weather satellite technology, enabling better flight planning and helping airlines to avoid turbulence: Keeping their passengers safe and saving money by reducing the need for unnecessary flight plan changes around non-existent turbulence. By working with weather forecasting experts at the Met Office and University of Reading I will seek to improve our ability to forecast turbulence, allowing airlines not only to avoid turbulence in-flight but also to allow better advance planning of turbulence-free routes before take-off.