August 3, 2026 - New turbulence detection tool aims to make commercial flight smoother

On July 30, the National Weather Service's Aviation Weather Center (AWC) debuted a new tool to help pilots navigate the (occasionally) bumpy skies.

The Graphical Turbulence Guidance Nowcast (GTGN) has upgraded features that commercial pilots can use to anticipate features that aren't always captured by traditional weather forecast models. With sponsorship by the Federal Aviation Administration, the AWC worked with the National Centers for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) to facilitate GTGN through the Aviation Weather Testbed research to operations process.

It's a big enhancement to previous turbulence forecasting abilities. Whereas other products produce forecasts that are useful for planning flight routes, nowcast data informs pilot decision-making during the flight. GTGN output is available at 51 separate altitudes above ground, starting 100 feet above ground level and continuing all the way up to 50,000 ft. The horizontal resolution over the Continental U.S. matches that of its base forecast model, the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR), of 3 km. This allows smaller features, like individual mountains or thunderstorm cells, to be better captured and accounted for.

GTGN also includes inflight turbulence analysis every 15 minutes. This enhanced output cadence, four times per hour, informs pilots and forecasters about the maximum expected turbulence from multiple sources: clear air turbulence, undulations caused by mountains, and bumpy skies due to atmospheric convection, which often presents in the form of thunderstorms.

GTGN combines observations from ground-based lightning data, satellite-derived data, observations from pilots (called PIREPs) and ground-based weather stations (METARs). Short-term forecast analysis needed for GTGN's nowcasts comes from the NCAR Turbulence Detection Algorithm (NTDA) and the HRRR forecast.

GTGN is now available at the AWC's website. Pilots can access a mobile-friendly version of AWC's website while in flight. Raw data in standard binary (GRIB2) format is also available on NOMADS.

Media contact: NWS Public Affairs, [email protected]