The presence of an atmospheric acoustic duct, a channel of sound at the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere, has been verified for the first time by Sandia National Laboratory scientists.
Solar hot air balloons carrying microbarometers floating in the lower stratosphere were able to observe infrasound signals within the acoustic duct, said Sarah Albert at the Seismological Society of America’s Annual Meeting. The acoustic energy came from an orbital rocket launch that crossed the duct.
Albert and colleagues detected infrasound signals in the duct that were related to the April 2021 launch, ascent and descent of a Blue Origin rocket in Van Horn, Texas. The balloon-borne instruments captured the signals from 400 kilometers away.
Read more at Seismological Society of America
Photo Credit: Blue Origin via Wikimedia Commons
