Aeronautical diagnostics for clear-air turbulence forecast at meteofrance in the context of DELICAT* European project

Abstract

A study on Clear-Air Turbulence (abbreviated by CAT) forecast in a Numerical Weather Model is presented in this paper. The main objective of this study is to evaluate ARPEGE Meteofrance-NWP model's ability to reproduce CAT, by calculating various CAT indices at the regional scale (over Europe) in this model. The list of indices used here is inspired from that proposed by R. Sharman & Wolff (2006). Calculated indices are then compared with AMDARs (Aircraft Meteorological DAta Relay) turbulence measurements during winter, early in 2010. This work was performed within DELICAT european project (*DEmonstration of LIdar based Clear-Air Turbulence detection), in the Seventh Research Framework program of the European Union [FP7], in Meteofrance national weather agency.