Climate change will bring more flight turbulence: study

Climate change could bring more severe flight turbulence and potentially raise the risk of injury for passengers in the future, a new study warned.

The research, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences on Friday, said that severe turbulence could become two to three times more common later this century when there is twice as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Climate change is expected to lead to stronger vertical wind shears in the jet stream at the cruising altitude for most jet aircraft.

"Our new study paints the most detailed picture yet of how aircraft turbulence will respond to climate change," author Paul Williams, scientist from the University of Reading in Britain, said in a statement.

By the middle of the century, with no effort to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, even the most seasoned frequent fliers might be alarmed at the prospect of a 149-percent increase in severe turbulence, he added.

The research builds on a study in the journal Nature Climate Change by Williams and his colleague Manoj Joshi in 2013, which found that climate change had resulted in the increase of moderate-to-severe turbulence in the North Atlantic.