Systems and methods for characterizing turbulence regions

A system for characterizing turbulence regions, the system comprising:

• an inertial reference unit configured to measure turbulence experienced by an aircraft;
• at least one memory device configured to:
• store a turbulence measurement;
• and
• record position information of the aircraft associated with the measured turbulence;
• a processing unit configured to determine a turbulence intensity setting from the turbulence measurement and determine a turbulence region from the position information associated with the turbulence measurement;
• and
• a transceiver configured to transmit the turbulence intensity setting and turbulence region information, the turbulence region information describing the turbulence region.

A program product comprising a processor-readable medium on which program instructions are embodied, wherein the program instructions are configured, when executed by at least one programmable processor, to cause the at least one programmable processor to:

• receive a turbulence measurement and position data of a first aircraft from the first aircraft, the turbulence measurement describing the motion of the aircraft and the position data being associated with the turbulence measurement.
• store the turbulence measurements and position data on at least one memory device;
• determine a turbulence intensity setting from the turbulence measurement;
• determine a turbulence region from the stored position data;
• associate the turbulence region with the turbulence intensity setting;
• and
• transmit the turbulence intensity setting and the associated turbulence region to a second aircraft.