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Sonification of the Sun

Making tangible the electromagnetic activity the sun generates was the goal of this project. Indeed we live in the near atmosphere of a very active star made of gas in a plasma state pouring a quantity of solar particles. Several tools have made it possible to mesure it's activity such as radiotelescopes that are on sattelites in space such as GOES 15 which can mesure X rays and UV . Since our magnetosphere blocks and protects us from these types of waves, the only way to monitor it's activity from earth is by mesuring the electromagnetic frequencys that passes through. The department of solar physics and space weather in Belgium uses a radiotélscope based in Humain.

Software

--> Code repo here

This software was created for sound and plasma art installation "Zoryas" imagined by Claire Williams and brought to life with the code ofBaptiste de la Gorce in 2019. This installation is a production of Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains.

This software has been made with the help of :

And the precious advice of:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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This software has been coded to sonify or translate live data into audible sound. Fits files mesured by radiotelescopes from the E- Callisto network are updated every 15 minutes on the E-Callisto server.This data is the suns electromagnetic activity mesured at different frequencys varying from 0 to 1600 mHz.
The python software reads the data as a spectrogramme in time and frequency translating them into sound frequencys from 0 - 400 hz.

The sonification handbook


This software has been made for an artistic purpose in order to see, hear and feel the otherwise inaudible activity of our star. The setup is on a RaspberryPi3 B+ and a mono track is transmitted to 5 transduceurs and basspumps. The spectator can experience the activity of the sun through a bone conduction setup. The other mono track is sent to a tesla coil which modulates 5 plasma glass sculptures. Each contain different noble gases that vary in intensity and effects according to the different frequencys.
Low frequencys have been privileged for this specific setup.

The python software downloads the last hours of the E-Callisto data and selects the most intense activity to generate a stereo track in wav format.

List of the radiotelescopes from the E Callisto network and their frequency in mHz:

ALASKA COHOE (45-95 mHz)
ALASKA HARP (40-0)
ALSAKA (200-425)
ALMATY (200-900)
Austria-Krumbach (0-500)
Austria-michelbach (150-400)
Austria-OE3FLB (700-600 mHz)
Austria- Unigraz (80-40 mHz)
Australia-ASSA (800-100 mHz)
Australia-LMRO (900- 0)
BIR_ ( 110-10)
ESSEN (80-20)
ETHIOPIA (900- 0)
GLASGOW (80-60)
GREENLAND (110-10)
Germany-Hildesheim (900-50)
HUMAIN (450-0)
HURBANOVO (200-55)
INDIA-UDAIPUR (900-50)
INDONESIA (400-0)
INPE (900-50)
JAPAN-IBARAKI (850-100)
KASI (500-0)
KRIM (350-250)
MEXART ( 220-50)
MONGOLIA-GOBI (900-50)
MONGOLIA-UB (900-50)
MRO (850-50)
MRT1 (900-50)
MRT2 (500-0)
MRT3 (500-0)
NEPAL (900-50)
NORWAY-NY-AALESUND (1600-1000)
NORWAY-RANDABERG (1600-1000)
OOTY (500-0)
PERALEJOS (900-50)
PuertoRico-Arecibo (120-0)
ROSWELL-NM (300-0)
SOUTHAFRICA-SANSA (900-50)
SSRT (500-0)
SWISS-BLEN5M (900-300)
SWISS-HB9SCT (900-50)
SWISS-HEITERSWIL (80-0)
SWISS-MUHEN (90-15)
SWISS-ZURICH (1500-1400)
TRIEST (425-225)
URUGUAY (900-100)

Solar burst


Requirements:
Tested on raspian - debian.

Python 3.5
Pip
aplay

emacs

sudo python3.5 -m pip install parse
sudo python3.5 -m pip install astropy
sudo python3.5 -m pip install scipy : plante


# creation du repository ---------------------------
hg clone https://login:motdepass@bitbucket.org/guilbut/clairewilliams
hg update default -C

# mise à jour du repository ----------------------
hg pull https://login:motdepass@bitbucket.org/guilbut/clairewilliams
hg update default -C

#Lancer dans le terminal en parrallèle

sudo python3.5 fitDownloader.py
sudo python3.5 fitPlayer.py

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Hardware

Configuring hifiberry DAC + sound card on raspberrypi3 B+

cd /boot/config.txt

Remove the line

dtparam=audio=on

Load the correct device tree file. To do this, you must edit /boot/config.txt and add the following line:

For DAC+ Standard/Pro/Amp2

dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus

Links

Space weather : NOAA https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

Satelitte GOES 15 qui mesure différentes longueurs d’ondes https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/goes-15-solar-x-ray-imager-sxi

Nasa, sounds of the sun : https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/sounds-of-the-sun

Stanford Experimental Physics Lab Solar Sounds page.​

Philippe Zarka, OBSPM

The Sonification Handbook, Thomas Hermann, Andy Hunt, John G. Neuhoff

Zoryas