Boom Visualization App

Using data generated by actual flight tests conducted at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center and data collected from NASA noise laboratories, app developers should construct a visualization of low boom as it compares to normal sonic boom. Currently noise data is either illustrated with ‘contours’ around airport runways and surrounding areas or presented numerically in decibels. Can an app be developed that allows people to ‘see’ the difference between low boom and normal sonic boom over their geographical area? Such an app would help visual learners to grasp the difference more rapidly than traditional data displays.

In coming up with a solution to this challenge, we wanted the user to visualise the areas impacted by the noise from the normal and low-boom sonic aircraft. For this purpose, we utilised the Cesium map engine alongside flight-path data available from the Flight Plan Database.

In addition, we developed a web-application to enable individuals to hear the normal sonic and low-boom noise profiles and compare these noises to familiar every-day sounds.

This combination of tools allows us to communicate the advantage of low-boom aircraft in an easy-to-understand manner. Our solution enables communities living in the noise 'corridor' to know ahead of time what expect from these aircraft.

Solution involves flight-path data for NY-SF obtained via Flight Plan Database (flightplandatabase.com/). Data was visualised via the Cesium map engine (cesiumjs.org/). Code from the "Interpolation" demo was used as the template for this simulation. Noise corridors were calculated from available literature as well as the SpaceApps resources page (github.com/SpaceApps2016/Resources). MATLAB was used for sound processing and calculation. The Noise App was written using HTML/CSS.