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Listen to the Sky

Posted by michael on from the snap-crackle-pop dept.

disposable60 writes "Sky Ear will be a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky."

7 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. ELF by dysprosia · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even better, muck around with VLF/ELF radio. You can hear much more interesting stuff than just the sky, like whistlers from thunderstorms for starters...

    Check out vlf.it for some interesting stuff on VLF/ELF radio.

    1. Re:ELF by nick0909 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You can do some cool stuff with low-frequency listening. I have heard radio skip that was transmitted on the east coast, bounced of a meteor storm, and came back down to my little antenna in California. I also like the pings and zooms from various atmospheric disturbances. You don't even need a storm to do it, but that just adds to the randomness.

  2. Re:Why? What is the point? by deglr6328 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And why wait?? Listen now, live. (not all at once now!!) If that site goes down, and I presume it will within seconds of posting this, this site has pre-recorded sounds of Earth's natural EM radiation.

    --
    - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
  3. Re:Using mobile phones at altitude? by nick0909 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have been on the top of a pretty high mountain (Bald Mt, Butte County, CA) during Field Day 2003. The cell had full strength signals but we couldn't make a call. When my friend got his roaming bill it turns out he was hitting a tower about 150 miles away. The better gain antennas on the cell tower could hit us, but out little .3w phone couldn't get back to it.

  4. Schumann resonance-lightning from around the world by dtmos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You're probably referring to the Schumann resonance, the resonance of the earth-ionosphere resonant cavity. Energy from lightning around the world excites this resonance, which then rings--much as hitting a bell with a hammer causes the bell to ring.

    Also like an acoustic bell, there is a fundamental frequency of resonance and many overtones that grow fainter as you go up in frequency. The fundamental Schumann resonance is approximately 7.8 Hz; the first few overtones are usually given as 13.8, 19.7, 25.7, and 31.7 Hz. There is a slight variation in the frequencies involved over long periods of time, as the ionosphere changes in response to solar activity.

  5. I hope they're not GSM phones... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...because if they are, the GSM circuitry will detect zero noise and therefore send zero signal to the receiving handset. The receiving handset will auto-generate a random noise which is perceived by our ears as silence.

    Thus, if you phone up these balloons, the sound you hear has been generated by the phone you are holding next to your ear!

  6. Re:Schumann resonance-lightning from around the wo by FrostedWheat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's a really low frequency. Is it a concidence that it's wavelength is the almost the same as the circumference of the Earth? Or is that the whole reason it works?

    Thanks for the information and links!