Coffel Speaks to Newsweek About the Effects Climate Change Has on Flying

March 29, 2023

Newsweek

Ethan Coffel

Geography & the Environment Department

Climate Change

Infrastructure

United States

Newsweek

Ethan Coffel

Research shows that airplane turbulence could be increasing because of climate change and become three times as common by 2050 to 2080.

Ethan Coffel, assistant professor assistant professor of geography and the environment, says that there are other effects that climate change is having on flying.

"There are three primary effects [of climate change on flying]: a reduction in payload capacity for some flights because of rising temperatures, an increase in clear air turbulence on some flight routes, and changes in fuel consumption on some routes due to changes in upper level wind speeds," Coffel says.

"Climate change has influenced the strength of the high altitude winds over major flight routes (like the North Atlantic), and changes in these winds have increased the frequency of clear air turbulence (that is turbulence associated with just winds and not thunderstorms or mountains)," he says.

Read more in the Newsweek article, "Airplane Turbulence Is on the Rise: Here's Why."