Snow is the most sound-absorbent natural ground cover

Evidence

Snow is of interest in these applications since it is the most absorbent, naturally occurring ground cover. The presence of a snow cover has a large effect on acoustic pulse propagation, causing increased attenuation and marked waveform changes compared with propagation over grassland. — Donald G. Albert, Acoustic Waveform Inversion with…, 5

Categorization

• SHARE: A crisp one-liner for a soundscape-ecology lecture — snow as nature’s best acoustic absorber.
• XREF: connects to: Acoustic sensing can measure snow permeability at spatially averaged, selectable scales — Donald G. Albert, Acoustic Waveform Inversion with…, 115; Snow exceeds other natural surfaces in sound absorption by a large margin. — Donald G. Albert and John A. Orcutt, Acoustic Pulse Propagation Above…, 6; Ground and vegetation attenuate noise in complementary frequency ranges. — Donald Aylor, Noise Reduction by Vegetation and Ground, 122 (+2 more)

Related

• Snow exceeds other natural surfaces in sound absorption by a large margin. (similarity 0.92)
• Effective flow resistivity is the dominant ground absorption parameter. (similarity 0.88)
• Scientists ignored snow microstructure’s acoustic effect until the 1950s (similarity 0.87)
• Acoustic sensing can measure snow permeability at spatially averaged, selectable scales (similarity 0.85)
• Sound absorption coefficients vary dramatically by surface material and frequency (similarity 0.82)
• Ground and vegetation attenuate noise in complementary frequency ranges. (similarity 0.80)
• Snow grounds require a layered porous-medium impedance model. (similarity 0.80)
• Donald G. Albert — Acoustic Waveform Inversion with Application to Seasonal Snow Covers (similarity 0.79)
• Low absorption levels increase reverberant field level by sustaining sound energy (similarity 0.79)
• Ground impedance, not foliage, governs low-band attenuation by vegetation. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Sound absorption coefficients vary dramatically by surface material and frequency #expands (0.80) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1885
• Scientists ignored snow microstructure’s acoustic effect until the 1950s #expands (0.80) — Donald G. Albert, Acoustic Waveform Inversion with…, 7
• Ground and vegetation attenuate noise in complementary frequency ranges. #expands (0.75) — Donald Aylor, Noise Reduction by Vegetation and Ground, 122