A sonic boom is the loud noise created by the shock wave set up by an aircraft or missile traveling at supersonic speeds.

 

A subsonic aircraft produces pressure waves ahead of itself, which travel at the speed of sound, and clear a path for the oncoming aircraft. In supersonic flight the aircraft overtakes the pressure waves so that a shock wave cone is created with the nose of the aircraft at its vertex. In level flight the intersection of the shock wave cone with the ground produces a hyperbola, at all points along which the sonic boom is simultaneously experienced; subsequently the boom will be experienced at all points within the hyperbola's path over the ground.

 

Large meteors and the Space Shuttle often produce audible sonic booms before they are decelerated below the speed of sound by Earth's atmosphere.

 

Types of sonic boom

There are two types of booms: N-waves and U-waves. The N-wave is generated from steady flight conditions, and its pressure wave is shaped like the letter "N." N-waves have a front shock to a positive peak overpressure which is followed by a linear decrease in the pressure until the rear shock returns to ambient pressure. The U-wave, or focused boom, is generated from maneuvering flights, and its pressure wave is shaped like the letter "U." U-waves have positive shocks at the front and rear of the boom in which the peak overpressures are increased compared to the N-wave.

 

For today's supersonic aircraft in normal operating conditions, the peak overpressure varies from less than one lb to about 10 pounds per square foot for a N-wave boom. Peak overpressures for U-waves are amplified two to five times the N-wave, but this amplified overpressure impacts only a very small area when compared to the area exposed to the rest of the sonic boom.

 

Characteristics of sonic booms

The strongest sonic boom ever recorded was 144 pounds per square foot and it did not cause injury to the researchers who were exposed to it. The boom was produced by a F-4 flying just above the speed of sound at an altitude of 100 feet.

 

In recent tests, the maximum boom measured during more realistic flight conditions was 21 lb/sq ft. There is a probability that some damage – shattered glass, for example, will result from a sonic boom. Buildings in good repair should suffer no damage by pressures of less than 16 pounds per square foot . And, typically, community exposure to sonic boom is below two pounds per square foot. Ground motion resulting from sonic boom is rare and is well below structural damage thresholds accepted by the US Bureau of Mines and other agencies.

 

The energy range of sonic boom is concentrated in the 0.1–100 hertz frequency range that is considerably below that of subsonic aircraft, gunfire and most industrial noise. Duration of sonic boom is brief; less than a second – 100 milliseconds (0.1 second) for most fighter-sized aircraft and 500 milliseconds for the space shuttle or Concorde jetliner.

 

The intensity and width of a sonic boom path depends on the physical characteristics of the aircraft and how it is operated. In general, the greater an aircraft's altitude, the lower the overpressure on the ground. Greater altitude also increases the boom's lateral spread, exposing a wider area to the boom. Overpressures in the sonic boom impact area, however, will not be uniform. Boom intensity is greatest directly under the flight path, progressively weakening with greater horizontal distance away from the aircraft flight track.

 

Ground width of the boom exposure area is approximately one mile for each 1,000 feet of altitude; that is, an aircraft flying supersonic at 30,000 ft will create a lateral boom spread of about 30 mi. For steady supersonic flight, the boom is described as a carpet boom since it moves with the aircraft as it maintains supersonic speed and altitude.

 

Some maneuvers, diving, acceleration or turning, can cause focusing of the boom. Other maneuvers, such as deceleration and climbing, can reduce the strength of the shock. In some instances weather conditions can distort sonic booms.

 

Sonic boom refraction

Depending on the aircraft's altitude, sonic booms reach the ground two to 60 sec after flyover. However, not all booms are heard at ground level. The speed of sound at any altitude is a function of air temperature. A decrease or increase in temperature results in a corresponding decrease or increase in sound speed.

 

Under standard atmospheric conditions, air temperature decreases with increased altitude. For example, when sea-level temperature is 58°F, the temperature at 30,000 feet drops to minus 49°F This temperature gradient helps bend the sound waves upward. Therefore, for a boom to reach the ground, the aircraft speed relative to the ground must be greater than the speed of sound at the ground. For example, the speed of sound at 30,000 feet is about 670 mph, but an aircraft must travel at least 750 mph (Mach 1.12, where Mach 1 equals the speed of sound) for a boom to be heard on the ground.

 

Sonic boom cloud

As a plane accelerates to just break the sound barrier, an unusual, halo-shaped cloud sometimes forms if the weather conditions are just right. The origin of this cloud is still debated. A leading theory is that a drop in air pressure at the plane described by the so-called Prandtl-Glauert singularity occurs so that moist air condenses there to form water droplets. These halos of vapor appear for only a few seconds when aircraft reach speeds just below or just above the speed of sound.