A standardised test environment to compare aircraft noise calculation programs

A new standardised test environment for aircraft noise calculation programs is presented. By means of this test environment different programs for aircraft noise calculation can be compared systematically. For this purpose a complete data set was developed, containing all relevant information needed to perform unambiguous aircraft noise calculations in the vicinity of an artificial airport. The input data is provided in a generic, non-program-specific form in order to be applicable to programs based on different calculation methods and data structures. In addition to the input data, guidelines on the file format of the results of calculations performed with different programs are specified to facilitate direct comparisons. The test environment and its data structure are outlined and examples of calculations according to this scheme are presented.