Aircraft Noise Exceedances

<strong>A. SUMMARY</strong>
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) monitors aircraft noise levels on the San Francisco Peninsula 24/7 for analysis and reporting.

<strong>B. HOW THE DATASET IS CREATED</strong>
Louder aircraft noise events are of particular interest. As a result, the Noise Exceedance dataset was developed from noise events correlated to SFO aircraft operations.  An exceedance is a noise event greater than the defined maximum level thresholds for Daytime and Nighttime periods at each noise monitor site. One aircraft operation can cause noise events at numerous monitors, which may become noise exceedances.

The maximum level thresholds for each noise monitor site are listed below.

Site - Daytime (7 a.m. to 9:59:59 p.m.), Nighttime (10 p.m. to 6:59:59 a.m.)
Site 1 - greater than 104.9 dBA, 94.9 dBA
Site 2 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 3 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 4 - greater than 104.9 dBA, 94.9 dBA
Site 5 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 6 - greater than 94.9 dBA, 84.9 dBA
Site 7 - greater than 84.9 dBA, 74.9 dBA 
Site 8 - greater than 94.9 dBA, 84.9 dBA
Site 9 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 10 - greater than 94.9 dBA, 84.9 dBA
Site 11 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 12 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 13 - greater than 84.9 dBA, 74.9 dBA
Site 14 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA 
Site 15 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 16 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 17 - greater than 84.9 dBA, 74.9 dBA
Site 18 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 19 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 20 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 21 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 22 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 23 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 24 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 25 - greater than 89.9 dBA, 79.9 dBA
Site 26 - greater than 84.9 dBA, 74.9 dBA
Site 27 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 28 - greater than 79.9 dBA, 69.9 dBA
Site 29 - greater than 84.9 dBA, 74.9 dBA

<strong>C. UPDATE PROCESS</strong>
Data is available starting January 2005 and will be updated monthly.

<strong>D. HOW TO USE THIS DATASET</strong>
It is important to note, that this dataset is of SFO aircraft departing and/or landing at SFO correlated to a noise event and not flight activities associated with other airports in the Bay Area region. This information is the data source for the Exceedance figure in the Aircraft Noise Levels Summary section (page 1) of the Airport Director’s Report. This report is presented at the SFO Airport Community Roundtable Meetings and available online at https://noise.flysfo.com/reports/?category=airport-directors-report

<strong>E. RELATED DATASETS</strong>
Other provided datasets are Noise Exceedance Rating, Aircraft Noise Reports, Late Night Aircraft Departures, Air Carrier Runway Use, and Late Night Preferential Runway Use, Aircraft Noise Climates, and Flight Operations.

Please contact the Noise Abatement Office at NoiseAbatementOffice@flysfo.com for any questions regarding this data.

Date created: April 23, 2024

https://noise.flysfo.com/data-reports/published-reports/report-archive/?wdt_search=director

Organization: City of San Francisco