Clear air turbulence is a terrifying experience for nervous fliers, and inconvenient at best for everyone else. At its worst, it can throw passengers around the cabin, causing injuries. New technology will make flying smoother and safer.

Turbulence is an irregular churning of the air, generally caused by the jet stream or by nearby thunderstorms. Its defining characteristic is that the turbulent area is invisible because of the lack of clouds. The only warning comes from pilot reports, known as “PIREPS” after the event, but pilots are mainly concerned about their own passengers. Turbulence may be reported late, the description may be inaccurate, and the details are not always passed on to other aircraft in the area.

The Turbulence-Auto PIREP System is a software tool to report turbulence automatically. It detects the shaking of the plane using the aircraft’s flight sensors, and sends details to air traffic control and nearby aircraft via existing radio links. Automated turbulence reporting is already installed on some airliners. Next year the International Civil Aviation Organization hopes to introduce universal aircraft tracking updates as part of its global aeronautical distress and safety system (GADSS). This will track all aircraft continuously so they cannot disappear without trace. As a side benefit, the program may include automated sharing of turbulence information by all airliners.

Under this arrangement, only one aircraft need ever be affected by a patch of turbulence. Following pilots would be informed and could avoid it, like drivers seeing those ahead steering around a pothole.