Acoustic measurements | Environmental sustainability

Noise monitoring systems

Aena has monitoring systems for measuring aircraft noise. The following airports are currently using this system: Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Alicante-Elche, Bilbao, César Manrique-Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Tenerife North, Tenerife South and Valencia.

The system receives information of flight plans and radar paths, correlating them with the measurements taken by the Noise Monitoring Terminals (NMT), allowing the system to evaluate the data from around the general airport system. In this way, the characteristics of each sound event and all the data related to the aircraft responsible for said event are recorded: aircraft identification, position, altitude, airline, destination, etc.

The locations of the NMT are selected in order to measure the environmental noise levels at the points that are most exposed to aeronautical noise, close to air routes, and to improve the measuring and control of the level of noise pollution caused by aeronautical operations in towns that could be affected.

Noise monitoring is not limited to aircraft in flight, the noise of aircraft on the ground, particularly during the night, is also monitored in airport apron areas close to towns bordering the airport.