Effect of Atmospheric Variability and Aircraft Flight Parameters
on the Refraction of Sonic Booms Kästner, Martina and Heimann,
Dietrich (2010) Effect of Atmospheric Variability and Aircraft
Flight Parameters on the Refraction of Sonic Booms. Acta
acustica united with Acustica, 96, pp. 425-436. DOI:
10.3813/AAA.918295. Full text not available from this
repository. This study deals with the potential audibility of
sonic booms from supersonic aircraft at the ground as a
consequence of the aircraft flight parameters and the
atmospheric variability. A ray tracing model is used to decide
whether a sonic boom emitted downwards by a high flying
supersonic aircraft hits the ground or is refracted upwards
before it reaches the ground. Aircraft altitude, speed, and
flight direction are systematically changed within realistic
ranges. The meteorological data rely on a homogeneous reanalysis
dataset for eleven years over the domain of Europe with a very
high vertical resolution. The cases of sonic booms hitting or
not hit