Is Thunder a form of sonic boom?

Thunder is a result of the rapid expansion of super heated air caused by the extremely high temperature of lightning. As a lightning bolt passes through the air, the air expands faster than the speed of sound, generating a "sonic boom".

Is a sonic boom similar to thunder?

Sonic boom is an impulsive noise similar to thunder. It is caused by an object moving faster than sound -- about 750 miles per hour at sea level. An aircraft traveling through the atmosphere continuously produces air-pressure waves similar to the water waves caused by a ship's bow.

What type of noise is thunder?

Regardless of whether lightning is positive or negative, thunder is produced the same way. Thunder is the acoustic shock wave resulting from the extreme heat generated by a lightning flash. Lightning can be as hot as 54,000 °F (30,000 °C ), a temperature that is five times the surface of the sun!

Why does thunder make booming sound?

As the heated air expands, the pressure drops, the air cools, and it contracts. The result is a shock wave, with a loud, booming burst of noise sent in every direction.

What are examples of sonic booms?

The crack of a supersonic bullet passing overhead or the crack of a bullwhip are examples of a sonic boom in miniature. Sonic booms due to large supersonic aircraft can be particularly loud and startling, tend to awaken people, and may cause minor damage to some structures.

The sonic boom problem - Katerina Kaouri

Do meteors make sonic booms?

When an object travels faster than the speed of sound in Earth's atmosphere, a shock wave can be created that can be heard as a sonic boom. Large meteors frequently produce sonic booms which can be heard before they are slowed to below the speed of sound by Earth's atmosphere.

Are gunshots sonic booms?

Most bullets make small sonic booms when flying through the air, which to our ears sound like a loud, distinct “crack!” For the Pentagon's special forces, that makes it hard to be sneaky about what they're shooting.

What is a thunder boom?

But when air is heated to 54,000°F (30,000°C) in a fraction of a second, a phenomenon known as "explosive expansion" occurs. This is where air expands so rapidly that it compresses the air in front of it, forming a shock wave similar to a sonic boom.

What does it mean if thunder is super loud?

The louder-than-normal thunder are common in Elevated Thunderstorms. These storms start to rise from the warm, muggy air above the ground. The typical surface based storms that we get in the summer, that may not be as loud, rise from the ground with the warm at the ground or surface.

What does loud long thunder mean?

A constant rumbling could be related to the lightning size and distance. If a lighting bolt is longer in distance, more air has to be displaced and thus more thunder that may reach your ears from slightly more directions.

What sounds like thunder but isn't thunder?

Skyquakes

Skyquakes are mysterious booms from the sky – but are not thunder. Skyquakes are another sound heard around the world. From the River Ganges in India to the Sea of Japan, these mysterious booms sound like cannon fire rumbling down from the sky.

Is thunder the loudest sound on Earth?

But what about the loudest sound ever heard? On the morning of 27 August 1883, on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa, a volcanic eruption produced what scientists believe to be the loudest sound produced on the surface of the planet, estimated at 310 decibels (dB).

What causes thunder without lightning?

No, it is not possible to have thunder without lightning. Thunder starts as a shockwave from the explosively expanding lightning channel when a large current causes rapid heating. However, it is possible that you might see lightning and not hear the thunder because it was too far away.

Why don t we hear sonic booms anymore?

Why don't we ever hear sonic booms any more? Noise abatement regulations halted supersonic flight (by civil aircraft) over U.S. land. The Concorde could still take off and land here because it broke the sound barrier over the ocean, but it's no longer in service.

Does thunder sound like a bomb?

The sudden heating causes the surrounding air to expand violently and creates big sound waves, like what happens in a bomb explosion, along the entire length of the lightning bolt. We usually hear a loud boom followed by several seconds of rumble.

Why is it illegal to break the sound barrier?

Breaking the sound barrier leads to a sonic boom. And regulators have determined that people need to be protected from sonic booms. Planes produce sound waves when they travel. At under Mach 1, these waves propagate in front of a plane.

What does it mean when thunder is really loud and shakes your house?

Like you mentioned, cloud-to-ground lightning would be the main producer of house rattling, booming thunder. Unless you're dealing with a very low storm, the thunder produced by cloud-to-cloud lightning is softer because the sound wave is dampened as it makes its way from the cloud to your ear.

Why does my house shake when it thunders?

"The result is a shock wave that creates a sonic boom --like a jet exceeding the speed of sound – which can reverberate off of the ground and buildings. All of that energy can't just stop as soon as it hits something, so it will transfer into those objects and cause rumbling and shaking."

Why is thunder louder at night?

At night, the atmosphere always cools from the ground up. This leaves a warmer layer in the upper atmosphere until the next day's sun heats the ground and then we warm from the ground up. When we have a thunderstorm at night, sound bounces off of that warm layer and has nowhere else to go but down and to our ears.

What thunder sounds like a gun?

The air around the lightning bolt expands faster than the speed of sound, which creates a shock wave of thunder. When you're this close to the bolt, though, it sounds more like a bullet from a gun,” she writes.

Why is Thundersnow rare?

Formation. Thundersnow is caused by the same mechanisms as regular thunderstorms, however it is much more rare during the winter because cold dense air is less likely to rise.

What is a rumble of thunder called?

The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning produces rapid expansion of the air in the path of a lightning bolt. In turn, this expansion of air creates a sonic shock wave, often referred to as a "thunderclap" or "peal of thunder".

Can a sonic boom hurt?

Sonic booms produced by aircraft flying supersonic at altitudes of less than 100 feet, creating between 20 and 144 pounds overpressure, have been experienced by humans without injury. Damage to eardrums can be expected when overpres- sures reach 720 pounds.

Why is sonic boom illegal?

The sonic boom ban came after Americans filed tens of thousands of claims against the Air Force supersonic jets during the 1950s and 1960s. Then, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prohibited overland supersonic commercial flights in 1973. The law, FAR 91.817, is still in effect to limit sonic booms.

Can a sonic boom shake your house?

The aircraft pushes a cone of pressurized air molecules out of the way so quickly that they're spread out into a shock wave. It's rare for sonic booms to break windows or cause serious structural damage to buildings, but it's technically possible if the the sonic boom is powerful enough, according to NASA.