Timelapse of global air traffic
This animation, created in 2008 by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, shows global air traffic over the course of a day. New research published in AGU’s journal Geophysical Research Letters finds weather forecasts have become less accurate during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the reduction in commercial flights.
Meteorologists lost 50-75% of aircraft weather observations between March and May of this year, when many flights were grounded due to the pandemic. Aircraft typically inform weather forecasts by recording information about air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure and wind along their flight path. With significantly fewer planes in the sky this spring, forecasts of these meteorological conditions have become less accurate and the impact is more pronounced as forecasts extend further out in time, according to the study.
Read more about this research study here:
https://news.agu.org/press-release/re...
Read the original research paper here:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
Credit: ZHAW School of Engineering.
Original animation file:
http://waikiki.zhaw.ch/radar.zhaw.ch/...
