Sources and propagation of atmospherical acoustic shock waves

Abstract

Sources of aerial shock waves are numerous and produce acoustical signals that propagate in the atmosphere over long ranges, with a wide frequency spectrum ranging from infrasonic to audible, and with a complex human response. They can be of natural origin, like meteors, lightning or volcanoes, or human-made as for explosions, so-called "buzz-saw noise" (BSN) from aircraft engines or sonic booms. Their description, modeling and data analysis within the viewpoint of nonlinear acoustics will be the topic of the present lecture, with focus on two main points: the challenges of the source description, and the main features of nonlinear atmospheric propagation. Inter-disciplinary aspects, with links to atmospheric and geo-sciences will be outlined. Detailed description of the source is very dependent on its nature. Mobile supersonic sources can be rotating (fan blades of aircraft engines) or in translation (meteors, sonic boom). Mach numbers range from transonic to hypersonic. Detailed knowledge of geometry is critical for the processes of boom minimization and audible frequency spectrum of BSN. Sources of geophysical nature are poorly known, and various mechanisms for explaining infrasound recorded from meteors or thunderstorms have been proposed. Comparison between recorded data and modeling may be one way to discriminate between them. Moreover, the nearfield of these sources is frequently beyond the limits of acoustical approximation, or too complex for simple modeling. A proper numerical description hence requires specific matching procedures between nearfield behavior and farfield propagation. Nonlinear propagation in the atmosphere is dominated by temperature and wind stratification. Ray theory is an efficient way to analyze observations, but is invalid in various situations. Nonlinear effects are enhanced locally at caustics, or in case of grazing propagation over a rigid surface. Absorption, which controls mostly the high frequency part of the spectrum contained within shocks, is controlled by humidity, cloudiness or surface properties. Variability is large at all scales, and depends simultaneously on climate, daily meteorology, and local turbulent state, especially near the ground in the planetary boundary layer. Numerous features of outdoor propagation remain to be explored in the nonlinear case, such as complex 3D atmospheric description (role of turbulence, partial reflections, gravity waves) or topography.