Dr Jason Furtado

Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology

Dr Jason Furtado is Associate Professor and the Carlisle & Lurline Mabrey Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma School Meteorology. Dr Furtado has a Ph.D. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Institute of Technology and has conducted significant research into seasonal forecasts and climate change studies. His research interests have been focused in the areas of decadal-scale projections of climate/climate trends and in providing quantitative and qualitative information for stakeholders (resource managers, city planners, general public) for better preparedness of extreme weather and future climate change.

Navigating Climate Change Risks Through Cutting Edge Training & Device Technologies

Climate change has arrived.

Rapidly changing technologies on the horizon can shape air travel safety in a variety of ways. New technologies in the cockpit, crew resourcing improvement, and certification processes all factor into the safety equation of air travel.

Yet, while the rest of the world is preparing for climate changed induced risks, is crew training and preparations keeping up with these increased risks? How does our industry measure climate change risks and ensure our training programs and devices lead the climate change fleet?

Everyday our industry is seeing the effects of climate change and how they affect air travel worldwide. Large data and technology improvements allow for increased model forecasting within the meteorological industry. What climate change models should be used and what risks deduced to address immediate and long-term risks in our industry?

Econometric and statistical forecasting methods offer great tools to recognizing the valuation of a process or product change. Merging both air safety statistics and climate change forecasts into an active safety model is imperative to maintain a strong safety program.

FlightSafety, Frasca International, and academic institutions are teaming up to understand the effects of climate change and how they pertain to crew training and safety. This corporate sponsored working group has built statistical models around historical climate-induced accidents and have been completing hypothetical models on what the future of training devices looks like to maintain and increase safety levels posed to air travel in a climate-changing environment.

This working team will share climate change modeling forecasts and what is being done to drive safety improvements into leading edge courseware improvements, flight training devices (FTDs)/Level D simulation devices, and modeling improvements within our training programs.