Demonstration of the Possibilities of Using a Phased Microphone Array as the Next-Generation Airport Noise Monitoring System

Abstract

Aircraft noise is a form of environmental noise pollution that is a cause for resident complaints, especially near larger airports. Noise monitoring is usually performed by placing single microphones at various locations in neighborhoods that are near airports. Single omnidirectional microphones, however, record every sound wave that is incident on the sensor. The sound amplitudes estimated by these single microphones include the contributions from environmental sources other than the aircraft, such as traffic noise, sirens, powered landscaping equipment, and barking dogs. Use of a phased array of microphones in combination with advanced beam-forming algorithms makes possible the selective monitoring of aircrafts’ localized sound amplitudes and thereby more accurately identifies aircraft-specific sound levels while minimizing the contributions from other sound sources. This paper demonstrates the noise source localization abilities of the phased-array system for the application of aircraft environmental noise monitoring.