Most flights, most of the time, are smooth.
While this PDF document is heavy reading, it is a fascinating read if you have the time. The document has an interesting excerpt that states that most turbulence is proportionately over reported and smooth flights are under reported.
From: SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINES FOR REGIONAL CLEAR-AIR TURBULENCE PREDICTION
In-situ data provides a better representation of turbulence statistics in the atmosphere (Dutton (1980), Sharman et al. (2006)). Figure 1 shows that over 99% of in-situ reports are reports of null turbulence. If this distribution is representative, at any time at most 0.01% of the atmosphere at upper levels should contain MOG turbulence. In contrast, about half of PIREPs report null turbulence, 27% report light, 17% report moderate and 1% report severe; thus, pilots substantially underreport the null events. In-situ data overcomes this uncertainty by reporting data every minute during flight.
Written by tb_neg on June 17th, 2008 with
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