Supporting the National Sleep Study and Faster Computing of Noise Metrics

The US Federal Aviation Administration’s National Sleep Study (NSS) is in its analysis and reporting phase. The NSS involves nearly 5000 valid survey responses across 74 airports over a two-year span from 2021 to 2023. The NSS requires the prediction of outdoor aircraft sound levels at each of these receptors in terms of cumulative noise metrics such as Yearly Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) and Nighttime Equivalent Sound Level (Lnight), based on flight tracking data. The outdoor metrics must be correlated to noise levels recorded in participants’ bedrooms. This paper describes our company’s support of the NSS, i.e., assisting with the matching of indoor and outdoor events by computing Points of Closest Approach (POCA) and developing and applying an expedited approach to computing the outdoor noise metrics with the FAA’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) using detailed grid outputs faster and more efficient than traditional methods. 2:40–2:55 Break