Modeling acoustic impedance and atmospheric absorption around airports using high-fidelity weather data

It is known that environmental factors have an impact on the propagation of noise and as such, the integration of high-fidelity meteorological data into noise modeling programs has given hope for improved predictions of outdoor noise level, particularly in the field of aircraft noise. Through the use of these high-fidelity weather data sets taken over a specific region surrounding an airport, there is an ability to calculate adjusted coefficients for the acoustic impedance and atmospheric absorption of the environment in external programs. These new calculations offer insight into whether more formal noise modeling programs will benefit from the use of these high-fidelity meteorological files and how the accuracy of future aircraft noise predictions will be affected. [This research was funded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Office of Environment and Energy through ASCENT, the FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and the Environment, project 62 through FAA Award Number 13-C-AJFE-PSU under the supervision of Chris Hobbs. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FAA.]