Original article published by NOAA Research on March 31, 2025.
Hurricane researchers know bumpy flights better than anyone else, but, after a particularly turbulent flight into Hurricane Ian, scientists were left wondering if it was the bumpiest flight on record aboard a NOAA WP-3D Orion hurricane hunter aircraft.
This question led scientists to develop a new rating system, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, that measures the bumpiness of flights. Other systems that measure atmospheric turbulence already exist, but this new system quantifies the bumpiness felt by flight passengers from inside the aircraft.
“We wanted to know how our flight into Hurricane Ian stacked up against other bumpy missions,” said Joe Cione, hurricane researcher at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, who was aboard the flight to gather data to improve the forecast. “With turbulence as the leading cause of injuries aboard aircraft, we hope our research can help improve the safety of many who fly.”
See how this flight’s bumpiness compared to other hurricane hunter missions and how the rating system was developed in a new article from NOAA Research. To read the full article, please visit OAR.