Turbulence monitoring and forecasting systems and methods

A system configured to deliver a sensory alert indicative of crop spraying conditions in an agricultural region independent of inversion conditions as measured by vertical temperature difference, the system including:

• at least one monitoring physical tower which extends from ground level in the agricultural region, wherein the tower includes a first anemometer configured to measure a first horizontal wind speed at a first predetermined height above the ground level, and a second anemometer configured to measure a second horizontal wind speed at a second predetermined height above the ground level;
• a processor which is configured to process periodic values of the first horizontal wind speed and the second horizontal wind speed, thereby to derive a real-time measure representative of a local vertical turbulence characteristic for the location of the monitoring tower, wherein the real-time measure representative of a local vertical turbulence characteristic for the location of the monitoring tower is based on a standard deviation of vertical wind speed at the agricultural location, wherein the standard deviation of vertical wind speed is calculated by processing in combination the periodic values of the first horizontal wind speed and the periodic values of the second horizontal wind speed;
• and
• an output which is configured to provide the sensory alert indicative of crop spraying conditions independent of inversion conditions based on a comparison between:
• (i) the real-time measure representative of the local vertical turbulence characteristic;
• and (ii) one or more predetermined threshold values.