atmospheric sounding Atmospheric sounding or atmospheric profiling is a measurement of vertical distribution of physical properties of the atmospheric column such as pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind direction (thus deriving wind shear), liquid water content, ...

and

noise pollution Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mai ...

, ambient noise level (sometimes called background noise level, reference sound level, or room noise level) is the background

sound pressure level Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local pressure deviation from the ambient (average or equilibrium) atmospheric pressure, caused by a sound wave. In air, sound pressure can be measured using a microphone, and in water with a hydropho ...

at a given location, normally specified as a reference level to study a new intrusive sound source. Ambient sound levels are often measured in order to map sound conditions over a spatial regime to understand their variation with locale. In this case the product of the investigation is a sound level

contour map A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional graph ...

. Alternatively ambient noise levels may be measured to provide a reference point for analyzing an intrusive sound to a given environment. For example, sometimes aircraft noise is studied by measuring ambient sound without presence of any overflights, and then studying the noise addition by measurement or

computer simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be deter ...

of overflight events. Or roadway noise is measured as ambient sound, prior to introducing a hypothetical

noise barrier A noise barrier (also called a soundwall, noise wall, sound berm, sound barrier, or acoustical barrier) is an exterior structure designed to protect inhabitants of sensitive land use areas from noise pollution. Noise barriers are the most effecti ...

intended to reduce that ambient noise level. Ambient noise level is measured with a

sound level meter A sound level meter (also called sound pressure level meter (SPL)) is used for acoustic measurements. It is commonly a hand-held instrument with a microphone. The best type of microphone for sound level meters is the condenser microphone, whic ...

. It is usually measured in dB relative to a reference pressure of 0.00002 Pa, ''i.e.,'' 20 μPa (micropascals) in SI units. This is because 20 μPa is the faintest sound the human ear can detect. A pascal is a newton per square meter. The centimeter-gram-second

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and express ...

of units, the reference sound pressure for measuring ambient noise level is 0.0002 dyn/cm², or 0.00002 N/m². Most frequently ambient noise levels are measured using a frequency weighting filter, the most common being the

A-weighting A-weighting is the most commonly used of a family of curves defined in the International standard IEC 61672:2003 and various national standards relating to the measurement of sound pressure level. A-weighting is applied to instrument-measured ...

scale, such that resulting measurements are denoted dB(A), or decibels on the

scale.

References

{{FS1037C MS188 Noise Noise pollution Sound Acoustics de:Umgebungslärm

See also

References