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 :
- The Royal Observatory of Belgium thanks to Petra Vanlommel & Christophe Marqué.
- The E- Callisto network setup by Christian Monstein giving us access to 24 h sun monitoring the electromagnetic activity of the sun with 47 radiotelescopes around the world.
And the precious advice of:
- Jean Phillipe Uzan, cosmologue
- Renée Prange & Philipe Zarka from l'OBSPM of Paris
- Sébastien Cabour, sound artist and technical advisor.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
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)
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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