Seismic detection of sonic booms
- Creators
- Cates, Joseph E.
- Sturtevant, Bradford
Abstract
The pressure signals from a sonic boom will produce a small, but detectable, ground motion. The extensive seismic network in southern California, consisting of over 200 sites covering over 50 000 square kilometers, is used to map primary and secondary sonic boom carpets. Data from the network is used to analyze three supersonic overflights in the western United States. The results are compared to ray-tracing computations using a realistic model of the stratified atmospheric at the time of the measurements. The results show sonic boom ground exposure under the real atmosphere is much larger than previously expected or predicted by ray tracing alone. Finally, seismic observations are used to draw some inferences on the origin of a set of "mystery booms" recorded in 1992–1993 in southern California.
Additional Information
© 2002 Acoustical Society of America. Received: 18 July 2001; revised: 29 August 2001; accepted: 30 August 2001. Seismic data and instrument information for the Southern California seismic network were kindly provided by Dr. H. Kanamori, Caltech Seismological Laboratory, and Dr. J. Mori, U.S.G.S., Pasadena. Seismic data for the Discovery reentry were supplied by Dr. A. Qamar, University of Washington. Shuttle trajectory information was courtesy of Gene Stansbury and Joel Montalbano of NASA. Additional thanks are due to Dr. R. Meyer, Dr. J. Ehernberger, Dr. D. Lux, and Bob Cohn of NASA Dryden, and Dr. J. Greene of JPL for allowing us to participate in the SR-71 flight.Attached Files
Published - CATjasa02.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 3348
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:CATjasa02
- Created
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2006-06-01Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- GALCIT