Intelligent switching between different noise propagationalgorithms: analysis and sensitivity

When modeling aircraft noise on a large scale (such as an analysis of annual aircraft operations at an airport), it is important that the noise propagation model used for the analysis be both efficient and accurate. In this analysis, three different propagation methods are compared over a range of different environmental conditions (uneven terrain, terrain blockage, refractive atmosphere, and ground type transitions) and geometric orientations. These results are then used to inform a scheme of “intelligent switching” between different noise propagation methods as an approach to address the long computational run times without sacrificing accuracy in a noise model. The feasibility of this strategy is discussed and potential implementation hurdles are identified.