A soundscape is the mix of all sounds you hear in a particular place, creating the overall “sound picture” of that area. It includes natural sounds, animal sounds, and human-made sounds.

There are three main parts of a soundscape:

1. Geophony: These are natural sounds made by non-living things. Examples include wind blowing, rain falling, and waves crashing. Geophony is the background sound of nature that happens without any influence from living creatures or humans.
2. Biophony: These are sounds made by living organisms. This includes birds singing, frogs croaking, and insects buzzing. Biophony captures the sounds of wildlife in an area, which can change depending on the time of day or season.
3. Anthrophony: These are sounds made by humans. Examples include cars driving, people talking, and machines running. Anthrophony often introduces noise into natural environments, which can affect the natural sounds of geophony and biophony.

Studying soundscapes helps scientists understand the health and changes in an environment, how animals behave, and the effects of human activities. Soundscapes provide a complete picture of an area’s acoustic environment and show how living things interact with their surroundings.

In eclipse science, soundscapes are used for several reasons:

1. Watching Animal Behavior: During a solar eclipse, scientists listen to soundscapes to see how animals react. Many animals act like it’s nighttime when it gets dark during an eclipse. They might change their sounds and movements. By listening before, during, and after an eclipse, scientists learn how different animals respond.
2. Studying People’s Reactions: Soundscapes can also capture how people react to an eclipse. You can hear people gathering, their excited voices, and the overall noise of the place. This helps scientists understand how eclipses affect people.
3. Environmental Changes: When an eclipse happens, the light and temperature change. This can affect the environment, like the wind and insect noises. Soundscapes help record these changes so scientists can study them.
4. Cultural Traditions: In some cultures, eclipses are very important. Soundscapes can capture traditional songs, rituals, and other cultural activities during an eclipse. This helps preserve these traditions for future study.

Overall, soundscapes give scientists a way to study the effects of solar eclipses on nature and people, offering more information than just looking at it with your eyes. In our next lessons, we will explore how these soundscapes are analyzed using tools like spectrograms and power spectral density. These tools help us see and understand the different sounds and their strengths in an environment.

• Data Collection: Collect PSD data for audio recorded on the eclipse day and two non-eclipse days. The time frame for each recording is 2-3 minutes of annularity for sites on the eclipse path, or 3 minutes centered on the eclipse maximum for off-path sites.
• Relative PSD Calculation: For each site, and each time-period, calculate the relative PSD by normalizing PSD values to a baseline, the average PSD of the two non-eclipse days.

• Baseline PSD: Compute the average relative PSD across the two non-eclipse days at each frequency.
• Standard Deviation: Calculate the standard deviation of the relative PSDs from the two non-eclipse days to measure natural variability in soundscape data.

• Maximum PSD Frequency: Locate the frequency where the eclipse day shows the highest relative PSD difference. (This frequency is listed in Column I.)

• Find the PSD values at the maximum frequency from two days prior (Column J) and one day prior (Column K) to the eclipse.
• Calculate the average PSD of these two non-eclipse days and record it in Column L.
• Calculate the standard deviation of the non-eclipse days’ PSD values, placing it in Column M.

• Relative Standard Error: Calculate the relative standard error by dividing the standard deviation in Column M by the average PSD in Column L (Column N).
• Relative Average PSD: Set the relative average PSD for non-eclipse days to 1 (Column O).
• Relative PSD on Eclipse Day: Record the maximum relative PSD for the eclipse day in Column P.
• Threshold Comparison: To determine the significance, divide the eclipse day relative PSD (Column F) by the relative standard error (Column N) and record in Column Q. If this value exceeds the 2σ threshold, the difference is statistically significant.

To determine the significance, divide the eclipse day relative PSD (Column F) by the relative standard error (Column N) and record in Column Q. If this value exceeds the 2σ threshold, the difference is statistically significant.

• Record the frequency, observed relative PSD difference, and the significance threshold at each relevant frequency.
• Plot the relative PSD differences across frequencies for the eclipse day compared to non-eclipse days, marking the 2σ threshold to visually confirm significance at the frequency of interest.

If a significant difference is confirmed, analyze what this deviation at the specific frequency might suggest, such as environmental or behavioral responses to the eclipse.

Click here to help analyze 2023 ES sites with significant eclipse day audio changes!