Near Infrasound Profile from Dome Noise

The noise was pretty bad yesterday [Sunday 01/25/09] afternoon especially so I recorded some of it to share with folks who are less fortunate then us folks surrounding the dome. In addition I wanted to look at the spectrum of the noise as we believed it fell into the very low freq range much like those annoying Base Boom Boxes you hear from two blocks away when they crank them up. Sure enough, basically 99% of the sound was under 5000 Hz and 90% under 3000 Hz. For those non-audiophiles out there the normal range for human hearing is 20 Hz to 20000 Hz so this "noise" falls to the basement of human hearing. Looking at a spectral graph of the noise profile we see several colors with a frequency band to the left. The blue color is basically "white" noise or -hiss-, the Magenta starts the actual "motorcycle" noise and falls from 3500 Hz to around 1500 Hz. Now we start getting far into the basement with the Red which is from 15000 Hz to 500 Hz and final the White is around 500 Hz to 0 Hz and this is the most troubling of all the noise as it is firmly inside the Infrasound boundary's. A little High School Physics refresher on sound, it travels as wave thought the air and other media to which it comes into contact with. As a "wave" sound propagates [moves] in certain fashions, the Higher Frequencies tend to be attenuated [quited] quicker as they resonate much more quickly then a "base" or low frequency sound. These lower or "base" sound oscillate much slower therefore resonate and acoustically "flow" around and even though more objects then higher frequency cousins. They tend hug the ground and travel for great distances before being "absorbed" by their surroundings. This fact is what makes this issue so unnerving is that at these frequencies the sound can as much felt as heard and prolonged exposure can be especially dangerous, as not much amplitude [volume] is needed to produce negative effects in the human body, and even mild infrasound exposure requires several hours, or even days, to reverse. General symptoms can include, irritation, "mild nausea, giddiness, skin flushing, and body tingling, anxiety, fatigue, and throat pressure.

So for all those "Pro-Domers" out there that think we should live with this health risk to ourselves, children, and pets, I say you bring your family here and live with it as watch your loved ones and pets endure the pain and suffering of this noise as it just gets under your skin, day after day, hour after hour...