How does the Charleston Air Force Base assess noise and its impacts?
The Charleston AFB measures noise using day-night sound level (DNL) calculated by NOISEMAP Version 6.5. It describes the average daily noise produced over the period of one year. Noise measurements around the Charleston Air Force Base include A-weighted DNL (ADNL) which has been found to correlate well with peoples judgment of the noisiness of different sounds and has been in use for many years as a measure of community noise. Measurements express noise in terms of decibels (dB). A decibel level of 60 is roughly the same as the sound of normal conversation or a dishwasher running. Factors such as weather can strongly influence how sound travels and is heard.
