ANNOYANCE DUE TO MULTIPLE AIRPLANE NOISE EXPOSURE.

Abstract

A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the annoyance effects of multiple aircraft noise exposure in which 250 subjects judged the annoyance of half-hour periods of airplane noise simulative of typical indoor home exposures. The variables of the aircraft noise exposure were the peak noise level of flyovers (56, 62, 68, 74, and 80 dB(A)), which was constant within each period, and the number of flyovers. Other variables investigated included the experience of the test subjects in making annoyance judgments and their home exposure to airplane noise. The annoyance judgments increased with both noise level and number of flyovers. The increased annoyance produced by doubling the number of flyovers was found to be the equivalent of a 4- to 6-dB increase in noise level.