Human response to low-intensity sonic booms heard indoors and outdoors

Abstract

A house on Edwards Air Force Base, CA, was exposed to low-intensity N-wave sonic booms during a 3-week test period in June 2006. The house was instrumented to measure the booms both inside and out. F-18 aircraft were flown to achieve a variety of boom overpressures from approximately 0.01 to 0.06 psf. During 4 test days, 77 test subjects heard the booms while seated inside and outside the house. Using the Magnitude Estimation methodology and artificial reference sounds, the subjects rated the annoyance of the booms. Since the same subjects heard similar booms both inside and outside the house, comparative ratings of indoor and outdoor annoyance were obtained. Preliminary results from this test will be presented.