Sound propagation in the atmospheric surface layer: Comparison of experiment with FFP predictions

This paper presents a set of acoustical and meteorological data from an outdoor sound propagation experiment. This experiment was done in a farm field near Rock Springs, Pennsylvania, on 7 July 1990. Meteorological and acoustical measurements were recorded simultaneously during six different times in the day. The meteorological measurements permitted determination of the sound speed profiles during each of the measurement sessions, using a method based on surface-layer similarity scaling. The acoustical measurements allowed precise determination of the relative sound pressure levels for a frequency range up to 3150 Hz at six different distances (66, 88, 125, 175, 250 and 350 m). The results show atmospheric conditions have an important effect on sound propagation. At medium and high frequencies, variations of the relative SPL have been measured at distances as short as 62 m. These effects increased with the distances so that variations as great as 30 dB have been measured during that day. Comparisons with the fast field program predictions are also presented, and amply demonstrate the accuracies of this model, especially for the downward refraction cases.