Validation of the sonAIR aircraft noise simulation model

Abstract sonAIR is a recently developed aircraft noise simulation model designed for single flight simulation while still being applicable for calculation of entire airport scenarios. This paper presents a rigorous validation exercise, wherein roughly 20’000 single flights were simulated using the 22 currently available sonAIR emission models of turbofan aircraft and compared against noise measurements. The measurements were recorded with the noise monitoring terminals at Zurich and Geneva airport, Switzerland, and with additional microphones installed by the author’s institution. Data from 22 measurement positions were analyzed, covering all departure and approach routes at distances from 1.8 to 53 kilometers from the airports. sonAIR was found to be accurate for departures and approaches under different operating conditions and aircraft configuration. The mean overall differences between simulation and measurements were well below ±1 dB in terms of noise event levels, with standard deviations of ±1.7 dB respectively ±2.4 dB, depending on the model type. A few aircraft types that displayed larger deviations are discussed individually. A sensitivity analysis on the input data found the quality and level of detail of the land cover data to be critical for the simulation accuracy. Changes in other input data such as atmospheric profiles and buildings had non-significant impacts.