Why is there turbulence during a flight?

Answer 1

Several things cause turbulence during a flight. If you're flying over a mountainous area, strong winds blowing perpendicular to the mountain range. Also winds flowing at different speeds in the atmosphere. If you have 100 knot winds at 30,000 ft and 50 knot winds at 28,000 ft, then you'll be in for a bumpy ride. Also faster wind speeds running into slower winds speeds at the same level will be turbulent. Flying through a low pressure system will also be kind of bumpy because in a low pressure system air is moving in an upward direction at different speeds.

Answer 2

Yes, air pressure does affect a plane's flight. But an even bigger factor is winds. You probably know what the jet stream is (a "river" of 250 mph air from 5-12 miles up). An average plane cruises at about 32-35,000 ft, which could place its flight in the jet stream. If a plane flies into the jet stream, it's air speed could increase or decrease by over 100 mph. This can cause turbulence. But most often, turbulence occurs when a plane travels through a cloud. As you also probably know, clouds form when warm, moist air rises to cooler temperatures and condenses. So when a plane flies through a cloud, the warm air that is rising and mixing with cold air (sometimes violently), causes the plane to jolt around. If a plane flies through a weather front, turbulence can be expected because two air masses are colliding, causing strong winds. Extreme turbulence occurs in thunderstorms, which all pilots try to avoid. I've flown through a thunderstorm near landing, and the pilot told us to hang on, and we might have to try to land twice. It was pretty bumpy. That's because strong updrafts and downdrafts of air form the thunderstorm. The downdraft can even cause microbursts or macrobursts, which are such strong down-force winds that they can easily push planes into the ground.

Answer 3

Air pressure causes the winds.
The movement of air from low to high pressure and the circulation around the pressure system.
Since the winds or change in pressure, do not go directly in the flight path, if a crosswind develops then the aircraft will lose lift and "fall" until the plane regains its lift.
Closer to the ground you get convection heating and the warm air rising provides lift, (gliders) which moves the aircraft up, as these air currents can rise quickly.
You have to remember the aircraft is very small when compared to the air mass around it.
If you put a float toy in a pool of water and cause ripples the float will go up and down with the water. The same effect is with an aircraft flying in an air mass.

Answer 4

Air is not a fixed mass and can expand or contract. Air pressure varies as the molecules react to influences such as temperature change. This can create pockets of varying pressure. When an aeroplane flys through these pockets, there is a resultant drop or rise on the pressure of air on the planes wing. This causes the turbulent effect you experience. Air speed (wind) also cause similar effects to the planes "true" flight.

Answer 5

pockets of low pressure actually cause the plane to fall downward. this is because the plane is able to fly by forcing air underneath its wings, so no air=no flying