Noise Abatement at Airports

Noise Abatement at Airports

 

   Managing aircraft noise around an airport has been a challenge that scientists and the FAA have been trying to minimize. The FAA uses a variety of tools such as the Noise Integrated Routing System (NIRS) and the Integrated Noise Model (INM) to catalog and assess aircraft route changes, performance, and noise propagation (Visser, 2008).

 

   Noise is measured on Decibels and frequency and analyzed based on an aircraft's single-event noise and noise produced over time (Visser, 2008). By doing this, scientists can accurately measure the unwanted noise produced by a number of flights in a localized area. The FAA assesses aircraft traffic over large regions using the NIRS; this model has been the standard for determining large scale requirements of modeling all aircraft noise. In addition, the INM has been used to model the movement in 3D space (Visser, 2008). A challenge for the aircraft engineers and the FAA is that the "annoyance" caused by aircraft noise is subjective to a person's region, economic status, demographics, etc., and the NIRS and INM can have limitations (Visser, 2008). A possible solution for reducing noise in the airport vicinity is already in place, which is flying a higher than a standard pattern. Since air travels roughly 344 m/s on a standard day, the frequency at which the sound is heard decreases as the total distance between the aircraft and reference point increases (Sound Wave Properties, n.d.). Another possible solution could be to require aircraft to be equipped with noise-reducing propellers or turbine blades. There are optimized wingtips that some manufacturers use that output reduced noise at maximum rpm compared to older blade designs.

 

   The number of people that have been exposed to significant airport noise has decreased from 7 million people to 309,000 people since 1975, and the NIRS and INM are part of the reason why (Fact Sheet – The FAA Airport Noise Program, 2020). The FAA continues to push low noise operations, with the creation of Part 150, which allows airport operators to determine the best methods for reducing noise in the vicinity.

 

Here are the noise abatement procedures for my local airport, KCRQ.

References

Fact Sheet – The FAA Airport Noise Program. (2020, March 20). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=18114

McClellan-Palomar Voluntary Noise Abatement Program. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/dpw/airports/palomar/noiseinfo.html

Sound Wave Properties. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://e-echocardiography.com/page/page.php?UID=1429454151

Visser, H. (2008). 1: Environmental Impacts Associated With Airport Operations. In 1090570848 826991258 R. Wijen (Ed.), Management of the Environmental Impact at Airport Operations.