,Sound Weather' - Methods and Applications

Weather forecasts are derived from highly sophisticated weather models reliably describing the condition of the atmosphere and its development under continuous correction through measured values from a dense monitoring network. Weather reports condense these results in simple statements that have many applications in daily life.The so-called ,Sound weather' combines the weather forecast with the sound propagation calculation. It takes advantage of the meteorological weather models to provide profile forecasts for wind and temperature and use these profiles with qualified sound propagation models to predict the favorableness of the noise propagation. The sound weather forecast is done with a lead time of 48 hours on an hourly basis.From long-term time series of the sound weather various information about level distributions can be derived providing new features and applications of the sound weather in many areas of outdoor acoustics and noise assessment.