NASA sample of clear air turbulence from flight operations of U-2 airplanes was extended to 820,000 mi for altitudes between 20,000 and 75,000 ft; flight measurements indicate that for higher altitudes (40,000 to 75,000 ft), turbulence is less frequent and less severe than for lower altitudes (20,000 to 40,000 ft); turbulence appears to be present at high altitudes less than 1% of time; intensity of turbulence decreases in orderly pattern with increasing altitude and less than 50% of turbulent areas exceeded 10 mi in length; maximum measured value of derived gust velocity was 20 fps at altitude of 52,000 ft; on basis of rough approximations, value corresponds to true gust velocity of 58 fps.
Review of NASA high-altitude clear air turbulence sampling programs
J Aircraft
Journal of Aircraft ; 3 , n 1
1966
5 pages
Article (Journal)
English
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