A Review of the Influence of Meteorological Conditions on Sound Propagation

The study of the different atmospheric effects indicates that in short-range sound propagation the attenuation by irregularities in the wind structure (gustiness) often is of major importance in comparison with humidity, fog, and rain, and ordinary temperature and wind refraction. However, the ground attenuation can be of equal importance to the gustiness, in particular, when the sound source and the receiver are sufficiently close to the ground. The effect on the attenuation of the height of the source and the receiver off the ground is presented as a function of frequency for a typical ground impedance. The attenuation curve exhibits a maximum which in most cases lies at a frequency between 200 and 500 cps.