Turbulent seismoacoustic imprints during a hurricane landfall
2026-08-06
Hurricane evolution is affected by turbulence in the hurricane boundary layer (HBL), which is typically measured using aircraft flights and towers. Through a case study of a landfalling hurricane, we show that seismoacoustic data can also be used for HBL turbulence analysis. We identified contributions of HBL turbulence in infrasound pressure and seismic displacement, validating our interpretation by combining large-eddy simulation, calibrated with meteorological data, with quasi-static elastic deformation modeling. The convection velocity of the turbulent pressure field is key to this pressure–displacement coupling. For atmospheric studies, continuous infrasound pressure serves as a proxy for 10-meter wind speed, and the inertial subrange of pressure spectra provides an estimate of the turbulent dissipation rate near the top of the surface layer at ~100 to 200 meters, complementing portable tower data at ~10 meters.