Different wavelengths provide different data, but the combination give us even more when we can compare them. Rain gauges measure collected rain water on various islands within the atoll and students measure the size and shapes of the raindrops. It was named to honor the late Secretary of Commerce, Ronald H. Brown, who died in a plane crash in Bosnia in 1996. By simply listening and recording measurements of rain on the ocean surface can be made. This new science is called acoustical oceanography.
Rain has very specific sound characteristics when recorded underwater.
Small and large drops make distinct sounds, the impact of the drop hitting the water and a second underwater tone. Medium size drops simply make the sound of the impact with no secondary underwater tone. Jeffrey Nysteun, a scientist onboard the NOAA ship, places an acoustical microphone into the tropical ocean. Small Drop - As small raindrops falls into the water creating a tiny bubble that rings like little bell and when recorded, sounds like a hiss. The following animation is first simulated as real-time, and then slowed down to demonstrate the distinct sound of impact and the subsequent ring of the higher frequency level of the small drops.