NASA Develops Microphone That Detects Distant Turbulence Zones, Could Revolutionise Flight Planning

In a move that could revolutionise both flight planning and aeronautical research, scientists at NASA have developed technology to find turbulence zones hundreds of kilometres away. Researchers Qamar Shams and Allan Zuckerwar at NASA’s Langley Research Centre in Hampton, Virginia, realised that if air traffic controllers or pilots could listen in on these whirling vortices before airplanes encounter them, an alternate route could be plotted. The researchers used a low-tension diaphragm with a wide radius paired with a large, sealed air chamber behind it to allow the microphone to hear these ultralow sound waves that travel great distances. When the microphones were placed in an equidistant triangular pattern around the grounds of Langley’s runway, they were able to pick up and locate atmospheric turbulence more than 300 miles away, in the skies above Pennsylvania.