2005 Noise Contour Technical Report

The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority (RDUAA) requested that Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. (HMMH) prepare annual Day/Night Average Sound Level aircraft noise contours for the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) for calendar year 2005. HMMH previously prepared contours for the years 1987/88, and 1990 through 2004.

HMMH has refined the contour preparation process each year by utilizing the latest available technologies. Beginning with a small sample of flight tracks traced from the ARTS radar at the control tower, the process of flight track modeling has evolved as described in Section 2 of this report. The remainder of this section of the report describes the contour preparation process in detail.

The noise contours for 2005 are smaller than the contours for most previous years. The change in contour area reflects increased use of the quieter Stage 3 aircraft. Please see Table 4 of this report.

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