The near-ground structure of the nocturnal sound field

The near-ground behavior of the low-frequency (100 Hz to 500 Hz) sound field in the nocturnal sound duct is studied theoretically and experimentally. In the first few meters of the atmosphere, narrow-band sound fields are found to have a characteristic vertical structure. The sound field is the superposition of a "surface mode," whose magnitude decreases monotonically with altitude, with a sum of "higher modes," each of whose magnitudes has a pronounced minimum a few meters from the ground at approximately the same height. The surface mode attenuates to negligible levels after a few hundred meters from the source. Consequently, more than a few hundred meters from a narrow-band source, there is a "quiet height" at which the sound level is reduced by 10 to 15 dB relative to its value on the ground. The narrow-band quiet height is shown to be a robust feature of nocturnal sound propagation.