Following a presentation given by Arnold Tafferner of WxFUSION GmbH where he showed how satellite and lightning data can help track developing thunderstorms and rapidly growing convective clouds, the panel discussion moderated by Jiska Johanna Manicus from IATA explored what must happen to make this information available to the users.

Several incidents of severe turbulence have been reported over the last months and years. Often the cause of the incidents was attributed to clear air turbulence (CAT). However, analyzing these events with the WxFUSION system Cb-global (global thunderstorm and turbulence detection and nowcasting ) reveals that it was convective turbulence where vigorous clouds, sometimes small of size, rise up to enroute flight levels. The WxFUSION system CITAS (Convectively Induced Turbulence Alerting System) builds on Cb-global and issues automatic warnings of such hazardous clouds in near real time.

These automatic warnings can be made available to pilots, operators, dispatchers or aviation meteorologists. If the information is available on an EFB the pilot can decide to either avoiding the turbulent cloud or initiate pro-active measures (fasten seat-belt, secure loose items, stop service), if a deviation is not possible for operational reasons. Thus injuries to passengers or crew members and aircraft damages can be avoided. Not to mention follow-up costs for insurance claims, repairs, grounded aircraft, law suits and image loss for the airline.

What if pilots could see dangerous turbulence before radar ever detects it? In this exclusive interview recorded at the Flight Operations Conference in London on 4 December 2025, AVTECH speaks with Caroline Reitwiesner and Arnold Tafferner about Cb-global, WxFUSION’s system to identify hazardous convective activity from space, in near real time, without relying on radar, forecasts, or aircraft as turbulence sensors.

Great opportunity to demonstrate our satellite-based system Cb-global at the Managing Impact of Weather on Air and Space Launch Operations Conference at EUROCONTROL Headquarters in Brussels, 12 – 13 November 2025. In his presentation, Dr. Arnold Tafferner highlighted Cb-global’s capability to detect and nowcast harzardous cloud cells, exemplified by recent cases of severe convective turbulence events.

WxFUSION has analyzed recent incidents where aircraft encountered severe turbulence en-route. In all cases the detection and nowcasting by WxFUSION’s Cb-global product captures the dynamics of the situation and shows the development of small turbulent cells in detail in space and time. These details cannot be forecast by any forecast model !

Cb-global provides situational awareness including forecast and could have warned the pilots in time !

Do not wait to use Cb-global during flight (Cockpit, ANSP, Dispatch)!

Cb-global is available in EFB‘s like AVTECH‘s ProFlight and DextraData‘s Logipad

WxFUSION‘s Cb-global real time turbulence and thunderstorm information is available in DextraData‘s Electronic Flight Bag solution Logipad.

WxFUSION – AVTECH Sweden cooperate since 2018: WxFUSION‘s Cb-global real time turbulence and thunderstorm information is available in AVTECH‘s Electronic Flight Bag application ProFlight.

ProFlight is the next generation EFB weather and optimization tool combining Cb-global real-time thunderstorm information, life turbulence data and high resolution weather forecasts, all in one app.

For a free ProFlight Trial including WxFUSION’s Cb-global layer visit https://www.avtech.aero/proflight/

WxFUSION was one of the six sponsors at the Flight Safety Forum focusing on aviation weather resilience (https://flightsafety.swoogo.com/safetyforum2024/5001788) and demonstrated their Cb-global product for turbulence and thunderstorm avoidance at a booth. The presentation was well received and acknowledged by Pilots and representatives of airlines and aviation authorities.

Cb-global is available in EFB applications like ProFlight from AVTECH Sweden (https://www.avtech.aero/proflight/) and Logipad from DextraData (https://logipad.aero/)

WxFUSION had a booth at the Aerospace Tech Week (https://www.aerospacetechweek.com/europe/) in Munich 29-30 March 2023 where they presented their aviation weather hazard products. The booth was shared with AVTECH Sweden who showed their EFB application ProFlight which includes the WxFUSION product Cb-global and further aviation weather products of highest quality.

Dr. Caroline Reitwiesner (WxFUSION) and Per Öhman (AVTECH) gave a joint presentation in the Flight Ops IT session (title: “Benefits of real time thunderstorm and turbulence information in the cockpit”) which was well received and appreciated by the audience.