By measuring ‘inaudible’ sounds, events like illegal nuclear tests can be detected. This ‘infrasound’ can also help us understand more about the upper atmosphere, according to KNMI researcher Läslo Evers. Evers will receive a PhD based on his research into this subject at TU Delft on Tuesday 4 November.
Sound with a frequency below 20 Hz is inaudible to human ears. Scientists’ ears, however, are very interested in this ‘infrasound’. Sources of infrasound are often large and powerful, like meteors, explosions, ocean waves, storms, volcanoes, avalanches, earthquakes and nuclear tests.
Infrasound is measured with arrays (series) of highly sensitive microbarometers. TU Delft PhD student Läslo Evers, who works at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, has improved the entire process of measuring, analysing and interpreting infrasound. The big challenge is to separate sounds from one other and to identify their sources.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Large explosions in the vicinity are easy to recognise, for example the explosion of a fuel depot near London in 2005. At home, Evers saw a huge peak above the noise on his computer screen. He knew immediately that something big had happened in England.
But the main purpose of his work is the detection of above-ground nuclear tests. KNMI helps to enforce the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1996, which prohibits signatories from testing nuclear devices. Dozens of microbarometers have been set up on five sites in the Netherlands.-Delft University of Technology
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