Atmospheric Infrasound

MAR 01, 2000

The search for ways to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has sparked renewed interest in sounds with frequencies too low for humans to hear.

DOI: 10.1063/1.883019

Alfred J. Bedard

Thomas M. Georges

Imagine a world in which you could hear not just nearby conversations and the noise of traffic a few blocks away, but also the sound of blasting in a quarry in the next state, the rumblings of an avalanche or volcano a thousand miles away, and the roar of a typhoon halfway around the world. Fortunately, nature has spared our senses from direct exposure to this incessant din. But our relentless quest to extend our senses has yielded instruments that can do just that—and more. Waves of infrasound, sounds at frequencies too low for us to hear, permeate the atmosphere and offer us insights into natural and human‐made events on a global scale.

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More about the authors

Alfred J. Bedard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Environmental Technology Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado.

Thomas M. Georges, NOAA/Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Boulder.