Turbulence encounters by general and commercial aviation pose
significant safety and flight efficiency concerns. Almost anyone
who has flown commercially has experienced turbulence and has a
tale to tell about it. In fact turbulence encounters account for
well over 75% of all weather-related injuries on commercial
aircraft. Consequently, there is an urgent need to provide
better turbulence information to pilots and route planners so
that the number of encounters can be minimized, or at least
provide adequate warnings so that passengers and crew will have
time to fasten their seatbelts for an expected encounter. For
the past fifteen years a group of scientists and engineers at
the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Research
Application Laboratory (NCAR/RAL) has led the effort to address
these needs. Working under the sponsorship of the Federal
Aviation Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration and in collaboration with several federal
laboratories and university investigators