Question: Lately I’ve been hearing the term “eddy dissipation rate” used for turbulence forecasts. What is it and how should I interpret it?
Answer:
How Do You Interpret an Eddy Dissipation Rate?
EDR quantifies turbulence for a specific aircraft, and it’s not a measure of the likelihood of turbulence—just the intensity.
Key Takeaways:
- Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) is an aircraft-independent meteorological measure (m²/s³) used in turbulence forecasts to quantify the *intensity* of turbulence, not its likelihood, by indicating how rapidly atmospheric eddies dissipate.
- EDR values range from 0 (perfectly smooth air) to 1 (extremely turbulent), often scaled to 0-100 for easier interpretation, with higher values signifying greater turbulence.
- The practical interpretation of EDR is relative to an aircraft's weight class (light, medium, or heavy), meaning the same EDR value can correspond to different categorical turbulence intensities (e.g., light, moderate, severe) depending on the aircraft type.
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