Measuring the noise in the sky

Its boxy base is made of metal, and otherwise unremarkable. It’s got a long antenna, protruding about 11 feet into the air, topped by a microphone. It’s not a piece of art, by a long shot, or remotely pleasing to look at.

In Malverne, however, it’s a welcome object of beauty and truth for many residents trying to cope with the often incessant plane noise plaguing the area. Give a warm, hearty welcome to Malverne’s very own portable plane noise monitor.

“We put them into areas where there’s been a request or where we thought there was a need,” said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Malverne monitor was installed at an undisclosed location on Nov. 26, he said.

According to Marsico, the monitor measures noise on a daily basis, hour by hour, and those stats are sent to the Federal Aviation Administration for review each month. He estimates that the first report will reach the FAA, and Larry Hoppenhauer, Malverne’s representative on the Town Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee, in January.

Because the monitor is portable, Marsico was asked how long he expected it to remain in the village. “It will be there indefinitely,” he said. “There is no set rotation schedule for these things. We’ve been moving them less frequently because there’s more of them now.” According to Ed

Knoesel, a senior manager of environmental and noise programs in the Port Authority’s aviation department, the agency was recently authorized to purchase 16 noise monitors, bringing its total to 32.

Residents interested in seeing just how loud jets are when they fly over Malverne can now view the results in real time on the Port Authority’s WebTrak 5 program, at http://webtrak5.bksv.com/panynj4.