Atmospheric absorption of sound: Further developments

This Letter is an extension of an earlier Letter by Bass et al., ‘‘Atmospheric absorption of sound: Update’’ [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88, 2019–2021 (1990)]. Errors in a formula for saturation vapor pressure are corrected, and an alternative, much simpler formula is given. The role of atmospheric pressure is emphasized by giving formulas in which the absorption, frequency, and relative humidity are all scaled with respect to atmospheric pressure. Also presented are new, more readable and useful figures showing atmospheric absorption as a function of frequency, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure. The new figures make it possible to estimate accurately the absorption at any value of atmospheric pressure.