Why Do Rockets 'Crackle'? How Supersonic Jets Make This Distinctive Sound.

Rockets are some of the loudest things that humans can experience, the Saturn V generated more power than entire US electric grid and converted about 1% of that into sound! There's a very distinctive crackle in the sound of a rocket which is a result of turbulence in the shear layer between the exhaust and the external atmosphere. I try to explain and visualize this using recordings of rocket launches and CFD simulations of jets.

Thumbnail by Trevor Mahlmann
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Featuring images and footage from:
Trevor Mahlmann -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7b4olOpRQ

Justin Foley, Benny Burtt, and Jason Achilles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fi22ABJW1o

Kent Gee pointed out that two of the diagrams came from his excellent article on the subject:
https://acousticstoday.org/the-sound-of-freedom-characterizing-jet-noise-from-high-performance-military-aircraft-kent-l-gee-tracianne-b-neilsen-and-alan-t-wall/

Jack Beyer
https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer/status/1577807251942780928?s=20&t=BheVgnpBVqdn_VbNyXw_Hg

John Kraus
https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1579085165938479104

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