NASA: ‘No Reason to Be Alarmed’

Residents and tourists along Florida's Space Coast might notice a big increase in loud sounds in the coming weeks because of a series of experimental flights performed by NASA.

Teams from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California and Langley Research Center in Virginia will head to Florida in late August as they work to better understand the impacts of low-altitude atmospheric turbulence on sonic booms, according to a release from the agency. To get their data, they'll need to fly a NASA Armstrong F-18 near the coast multiple times, and some residents will hear sonic booms several times a day for about 10 days near the end of the month.

There's no danger to anyone in the testing zone, NASA added, and "no reason to be alarmed."

"We have carefully planned our flights so that there is little chance that people in larger communities such as Titusville to the west, or Cocoa Beach to the south, will be disturbed," Ed Haering, principal investigator of Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence (SonicBAT), said in the release. "Residents might hear a distant sound similar to a rumble of thunder. If the actual winds at the time of our tests are much different from predicted, they might hear a boom sound like those heard when the space shuttle landed."

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The decision to hold the tests in Florida was influenced by the weather typical of the Space Coast during this time of year.

"Turbulence can make sonic booms quieter, or it can make them louder," said Haering. "Last summer we tested in the hot, dry climate of Edwards Air Force Base. We know that humidity can make sonic booms louder, so we need to test some place wetter, and (Kennedy Space Center) fits that bill."

According to a map provided by NASA, a small sliver of land and water close to Allenhurst and the Canaveral National Seashore will experience the loudest booms from the flights.

The tests will begin Aug. 21, and the teams hope to collect data from 33 sonic booms, Armstrong Flight Research Center public affairs officer Matt Kamlet told Florida Today.

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