The Underwater Noise of Rain

Numerous data on the spectra of underwater noise due to natural as well as artificial rain show a prominent and characteristic peak at a frequency around 14 kHz. It is argued that this acoustic emission is due to bubbles entrained in the liquid by the impact of raindrops. The mechanics of the entrainment is such that only drops in a narrowly defined size range have a high probability of entraining bubbles. The narrowness of this size range may explain why the 14?kHz peak is so ubiquitous and well defined

The underwater sounds produced by impacting snowflakes.

In 1985, Scrimger [Nature 318, 647 (1985)] reported measurements of noise levels significantly above the ambient level for snow falling on a quiet freshwater lake. He examined only the time-averaged sound levels and did not report measurements of individual snowflake impacts. Subsequently, the noise produced by individual and multiple snowflake impacts was examined for a number of different snowfalls. The radiated acoustic signals generated by the impact of individual snowflakes upon a body of water have a remarkable similarity to each other and differ principally in the frequency of the emitted sound wave. The acoustic signal of a snowflake impact thus generates a characteristic signature for snowfall that is clearly distinct from other forms of precipitation noise. Various aspects of this signature suggest that the radiated acoustic waveform from a snowflake impacting with water is due to the entrainment of a gas bubble into the liquid, and the subsequent oscillation of this bubble as it establishes its equilibrium state. Various scenarios are presented for bubble entrainment and approximations to the amplitude of the radiated signal and the acoustic waveform are obtained. </p

Early validation analyses of atmospheric profiles from EOS MLS on the aura Satellite

We present results of early validation studies using retrieved atmospheric profiles from the Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite. "Global" results are presented for MLS measurements of atmospheric temperature, ozone, water vapor, hydrogen chloride, nitrous oxide, nitric acid, and carbon monoxide, with a focus on the January-March 2005 time period. These global comparisons are made using long-standing global satellites and meteorological datasets, as well as some measurements from more recently launched satellites. Comparisons of MLS data with measurements from the Ft. Sumner, NM, September 2004 balloon flights are also presented. Overall, good agreement is obtained, often within 5% to 10%, but we point out certain issues to resolve and some larger systematic differences; some artifacts in the first publicly released MLS (version 1.5) dataset are noted. We comment briefly on future plans for validation and software improvements