[meteorite-list] How far away can a meteor be heard?

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 08:49:28 -0600
Message-ID: <5A5D7E7FF7A647138A76B78BF0FEF49E_at_bellatrix>

I have many reliable reports of people hearing sonic booms from terminal
explosions located over 30 miles above them. I can't say easily what
horizontal distance I've had reports from, but I'm sure it's more than 10
miles.

FWIW, I can hear fireworks set off about 30 miles away from my house, and
about 5000 feet higher elevation.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "drtanuki" <drtanuki at yahoo.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "Chris Peterson"
<clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 8:39 AM
Subject: How far away can a meteor be heard?


>
> List,
> I have the answer for thunder but not a meteor (I am guessing that they
> are about the same? 10miles or 16km
>
> Chris or anyone care to give the correct answer? Thanks!
>
> Thunder contains a somewhat cylindrical initial pressure shock wave along
> the lightning channel in excess of 10 times the normal atmospheric
> pressure. This shock wave decays rapidly into a sound wave within feet or
> meters. When thunder is heard from about 328 feet (100 m) distance, it
> consists of one large bang, yet hissing and clicking may be heard just
> prior to the bang (upward streamers). When heard at .6 mile (1 km) from
> lightning, thunder will rumble with several loud claps.
>
> Thunder is seldom heard beyond 10 miles (16 km) under ideal conditions.
> The sound of distant thunder has a characteristic low-pitched rumbling
> sound. Pitch, the degree of highness or lowness of a sound, is due to
> strong absorption and scattering of high-frequency components of the
> original sound waves, while the rumbling results from the fact that sound
> waves are emitted from different locations along the lightning channel,
> which lie at varying distances from a person. The longer the lightning
> channels, the longer the sound of thunder. Humans hear frequencies of
> thunder between 20-120 Hertz (Hz). However, there is a small amount, less
> than 10%, that is inaudible to humans produced from lightning, called
> infrasonic. Special listening devices are required to record these
> inaudible sounds.
> Sources: http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_info/thunder2.html
>
> Best Regards, Dirk Ross...Tokyo
Received on Thu 09 Jul 2009 10:49:28 AM PDT