A flight of her Singapore Airlines from London to Singapore experienced severe turbulence on Tuesday that resulted in the death of one person.

Turbulence of this intensity is rare, but recent studies have shown that climate change could increase the risk.

What kind of turbulence was that?

In order to know if climate change played a role in what happened on the London-Singapore flight, we first need to understand what turbulence occurred.

Eddy currents can be described simply as the irregular movement of air that creates currents. When these currents interact with the plane they can cause it to rock or suddenly drop in altitude.

There are many reasons why a plane can experience turbulence – from air flowing over mountains to clouds and bad weather.

It is not yet known exactly which of them had to do with the incident on this particular flight, but based on the weather forecast it is possible that it was either from a phenomenon called “clean air” turbulence, or from thunderstorms.

Is climate change causing turbulence in the ‘clean air’?

“Clean air” turbulence occurs when there is a change in wind direction in or around the jet stream – a fast-moving “river” of air typically found at 30,000-60,000 feet.

Last year, scientists from the University of Reading found that strong turbulence, from this clear-air phenomenon, had increased by 55% between 1979 and 2020 in the North Atlantic.

They said warmer air from rising greenhouse gas emissions was changing wind speed.

This type of turbulence is notoriously difficult for pilots to navigate. Although meteorological organizations provide warnings of where such a thing may be found, during flight it cannot be detected by their radar systems or seen by anyone.

Professor Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading, who authored the study, told the BBC last year: “We need to invest in improved turbulence prediction and detection systems to prevent rough air turning into more bumpy flights in the coming decades .”

Why do storms cause turbulence?

Thunderstorms that produce thunder, lightning, and hail are produced only by cumulus clouds.

These clouds can be high in the atmosphere, far above where airplanes normally fly, so they can’t always be avoided by simply flying over them.

The cloud forms as warm air rises rapidly from the Earth’s surface all the way through the atmosphere where it cools and condenses.

Inside a cumulus cloud, the updrafts and downdrafts of air moving inside can be very strong, which causes intense turbulence.

The clouds that produce thunder have very strong air currents – they can carry the same amount of energy as 10 atomic bombs the size of Hiroshima.

Weather forecasts indicate there were thunderstorms near Myanmar when the Singapore Airlines plane took off on Tuesday.

Will climate change make storms more intense?

There is strong evidence that such tropical storms are increasing in intensity as a result of climate change, according to the UN’s climate science body, IPCC.

This happens for two reasons. Climate change is warming our oceans, causing more water to evaporate, adding more heat and moisture to the air.

At the same time, warmer air can hold more moisture resulting in stronger winds and heavier rainfall from these storms – which would bring stronger turbulence. However, there is no clear indication at this stage that these tropical storms are becoming more frequent.

what is happening now

In the coming months, investigators will examine data from the plane’s systems to figure out exactly what happened.

If the cause of turbulence is identified, then scientists could determine whether such an event is more likely in the future as a result of climate change.

With information from BBC News