Localizing sound sources in air within built environments using ground-coupled airwaves

In this work, the feasibility of using ground-coupled airwaves for localizing and near-surface sound sources in built-up environments is determined. Of particular interest are the localization of gunshots and explosive sound sources in the air. The ground-coupled airwaves from an array of vertical geophones are used to estimate the sound source positions. Time-differenceof arrival (TDOA) and array beamforming localization methods are investigated to overcome the built environment’s multipath effects on the acoustic-seismic coupling, which makes it difficult to detect the ground-coupled airwaves.