Acoustic Rocket Signatures Collected by Smartphones

Journal Article · 23 January 2025 · Signals

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/signals6010005 · OSTI ID:2563273

Popenhagen, Sarah K.  ^[1]; Garcés, Milton A.  ^[1]

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1. University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI (United States)

Rockets generate complex acoustic signatures that can be detected over a thousand kilometers from their source. While many far-field acoustic rocket signatures have been collected and released to the public, very few signatures collected at distances less than 100 km are available. This work presents a curated and annotated dataset of acoustic signatures of 243 rocket launches collected by a network of smartphones stationed at distances between 10 and 70 km from the launch sites, resulting in 1089 individual recordings. Due to the frequency dependence of atmospheric attenuation and the relatively short propagation distances, higher-frequency features not preserved in most publicly available data are observed. The signals are time-aligned to allow for different segments of the signal (ignition, launch, trajectory, chronology) to be more easily examined and compared. Initial analysis of the features of these rocket launch stages is performed, observed features are compared to those found in the existing literature, and comparisons between signals from launches of different rocket types are made. The dataset is annotated and made available to the public to aid future analysis of the characteristics and source mechanisms of rocket acoustics as well as applications such as rocket detection and classification models.

• Research Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP)
• Grant/Contract Number: NA0003920; NA0003921
• OSTI ID: 2563273
• Journal Information: Signals, Journal Name: Signals Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 6; ISSN 2624-6120
• Publisher: MDPICopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English