Researchers with the University of Mississippi's National Center for Physical Acoustics placed a microphone array in Walker County, as part of a tornado detection and warning research program for NOAA.
The microphone array, one of 10 being deployed across the Southeast, were set up on land to the north of the aircraft landing strip at Mountain Cove Farms.
The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment-Southeast or VORTEX-SE research project aims to identify low-frequency acoustic signals that could be used to help forecasters anticipate, detect, track and warn the public of tornadic activity.
Each array consists of seven independent microphones, designed to record very low frequency sound, below the range of human hearing.
Additional information about the VORTEX-SE program can be found at www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/vortexse