8–12 Sept 2026
Europe/Vienna timezone

Beyond noise contours: simulating psychoacoustic metrics and population-based noise impacts of individual flights

FA2026/653
11 Sept 2026, 11:20
20m
Saal 11B (Messe Congress Graz)

Saal 11B

Messe Congress Graz

A05 Environmental Acoustics A05.05 Advances in noise mapping

Speaker

Stefan Schucker (Empa Acoustics and Noise Control 509)

Description

Noise maps of individual flights conventionally show contours of A-weighted levels: they mark where a given exposure is exceeded, but not how the noise is perceived nor how many people are affected. To move beyond this, the aircraft noise simulation model sonAIR was extended with the psychoacoustic single-event metrics Effective Perceived Noise Level (EPNL) and Zwicker's loudness, and with exposure-response-based population impact indices, all computed from simulated one-third-octave band spectra. EPNL, normally obtained from certification measurements, is computed after realigning the band grid, with a dampened spectral roll-off above 5kHZ that avoids spurious tone-correction penalties; the time-varying loudness is approximated by evaluating the stationary Zwicker method per time step. Verification against calibrated microphone recordings of two A320neo flyovers shows that the simulated metrics are as accurate as the underlying, previously validated emission and propagation model. Linking the resulting maps with population data yields maps of highly annoyed people and expected awakening reactions. Applied to a conventional and a low-noise approach procedure from the SESAR project DYN-MARS, the absolute number of affected people differs strongly between metrics, whereas the relative benefit of the low-noise procedure remains stable.

Authors

Stefan Schucker (Empa Acoustics and Noise Control 509) Beat Schäffer (Empa Acoustics and Noise Control 509) Jean Marc Wunderli (Empa Acoustics and Noise Control 509)

Presentation materials