14 DAY TRIAL // If it weren't for air turbulence, journeying from one corner of the world to another by plane would be a perfectly pleasant experience. However, air turbulence does exist, and it sometimes turns air travels into nightmares.
As detailed in the video below, turbulence is basically a chaotic and unpredictable flow of a fluid, be it water or air. Interestingly enough, scientists are yet to fully understand this phenomenon, let alone control it.
What they do know is that, in some cases, air turbulence is birthed by thunderstorms that release heat when producing raindrops. This heat, in turn, produces masses of warm air that cause updraft and downdrafts.
Air turbulence can also form when masses of air move over mountains that force them to experience a series of oscillations. This type of turbulence birthed by mountains can travel over considerable distances.
There's also a rather odd type of air turbulence known as clear air turbulence and which comes into being when two large masses of air traveling at different speeds come into contact with one another.
This type is usually associated with Arctic air and warmer air originating from the tropical region of our planet. Thus, while journey around Earth, the so-called polar jet and subtropical jet can trigger serious turbulence.
Lastly, it appears that plane themselves can create air turbulence simply by flying around. In fact, this is the reason two or more aircraft are not allowed to take off from the same airport too soon one after the other.
