Sonification of an exoplanetary atmosphere

Abstract

This study investigates the effectiveness of user design methods to create a sonification for an astronomer who analyses exoplanet meteorological data situated in habitable zones. Requirements about the astronomer's work, the dataset and how to sonify it utilising Grounded Theory were identified. Parameter mapping sonification was used to represent effective transiting radii measurements through subtractive synthesis and spatialization. The design was considered to be effective, allowing the instantaneous identification of a water feature overlooked on a visual graph, even when noise within the dataset overlapped the source signal. The results suggest that multiple parameter mappings provide richer auditory stimuli and semantic qualities in order to allow an improved understanding of the dataset.

Sonification of Exosolar System Accretion Discs

“…In a previous study [1] the use of familiar, natural sound was considered to be effective when applied to astronomical data related to water vapour found in an exoplanetary atmosphere. It was possible to immediately distinguish between the source and noise signal in the dataset due to familiar, distinct representations, water and white noise.…”