Infrasound sensing: toward new measurement methods and controlled sources

Abstract

The infrasound waves have already demonstrated their potential to characterize natural and man-made sources and to image the structure of atmosphere. These scientific acheivements have been driven mainly infrasound sensing by pressure sensor arrays deployed on the ground, with a strong contribution by permanent arrays developed in the framework of CTBT. However new infrasound sensing methods have been developed during the past two decades with very different concepts that allow to sense these waves at different altitudes in the atmosphere. We will recall a few key results associated with these new sensing methods on satellite and balloon platforms, as well as the ones using ionospheric perturbations. Concerning the infrasound sensing at ground level, we will explain how the infrasound waves can be monitored through ground movements and illustrate this method by the detection of infrasonic waves on Mars by SEIS seismometer of InSight NASA mission. Advantages and drawbacks of infrasound monitoring through ground movements will be presented, in particular the sensitivity to wind. Preliminary results comparing different infrasound sensing methods on the Earth will be presented. Eventually, we will also discuss shortly controlled infrasound sources and illustrate this discussion with recent experiments using burners as an infrasound source.