We love the Raspberry Shake here at The MagPi, so we were excited to hear from the team behind it that they were making a brand new product for budding citizen scientists everywhere: the infrasound-sensing Raspberry Boom, now being crowdfunded on Kickstarter.
Whereas the Raspberry Shake was a seismometer, detecting tectonic vibrations and the like, the Raspberry Boom senses very low-frequency sound. Lower than the human ear, which can generally hear about as low as 20 Hz. Like the Shake, the Boom is a device that can be used by people everywhere, creating a scientific network of infrasound sensors worldwide.
What can be tracked with the Raspberry Boom? A lot of things. Here’s the exhaustive list that the team sent us:
Weather Patterns
- Severe storms
- Tornados
- Lightning
Natural Phenomenon
- Wind/ mountain interactions
- Colliding waves in the open ocean (the "ocean microbarom")
- Surf / Ocean Waves
- Waterfalls
- Aurorae
- Geomagnetic activity
- Some animals like elephants
Geological Events
- Volcanic eruptions
- Geothermal activity
- Avalanches
- Landslides
- Breaking Icebergs
- Earthquakes (their seismic shock waves)
Astronomical
- Meteors in general
- Bolides (large meteors that explode in the atmosphere)
Man Made
- Quarry blasts
- Explosions
- Nuclear testing
- Wind farms
- Airplanes (especially supersonic ones)
- Sonic booms
- Rocket ignitions
Cultural
- Air conditioners
- Traffic
- Trains
- Fireworks
- Gunshots
- Doors slamming
- Diesel engines
You might be thinking “I can hear all of those too” but the Raspberry Boom is far more sensitive than the human ear, and it also automatically logs the data to the online Station View which includes everyone else’s Boom and Shake data.
If this all sounds interesting to you, check out the crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, which is live right now!
