Noise Levels in Elmendorf Afb, AK | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
54 dBA
Average noise across Elmendorf Afb
Quiet office to normal conversation
377
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
30% of Elmendorf Afb residents
76 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Elmendorf Afb at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
What the numbers sound like
30 dBAWhisper
40 dBASoft rainfall
45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
50 dBAQuiet office
55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
65 dBABusy restaurant
70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 377 Elmendorf Afb residents, or 29.9%, live above that level. By land area, 21.9% of Elmendorf Afb is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Elmendorf Afb residents, grouped by direction from the center of Elmendorf Afb. Eastern Elmendorf Afb carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern Elmendorf Afb carries the lowest. Just 0% of residents in Northern Elmendorf Afb live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Eastern Elmendorf Afb.
Eastern Elmendorf Afb
61.5 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
56% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Elmendorf Afb
36.4 dBA · Quiet
Soft rainfall
0% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Elmendorf Afb
45.6 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
0% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Elmendorf Afb sounds about 470% louder than Northern Elmendorf Afb to the human ear, a 25.1 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from Alsop Rd (point Mckenzie) do you need to be?
Alsop Rd (point Mckenzie) produces an estimated 55 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a soft rainfall.
At source
55 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 0% of Elmendorf Afb sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 0% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Airport Noise
Ted Stevens Anchorage International (ANC) sits southwest of Elmendorf Afb. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 55 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Elmendorf Afb, particularly to the northeast, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Elmendorf Afb
The bar chart below shows the share of Elmendorf Afb residents in each noise band. About 46% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 54% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Elmendorf Afb Compares
Elmendorf Afb sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Elmendorf Afb's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Fort Richardson, Knik, Girdwood, and Big Lake.
Average noise level (dBA)
Elmendorf Afb's 54.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. Alaska as a whole averages 46.7 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Elmendorf Afb because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 29.9% of Elmendorf Afb residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's more than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 21.9% of Elmendorf Afb's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Alaska average of 11.4% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Elmendorf Afb
Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from Alsop Rd (point Mckenzie) and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 0% of Elmendorf Afb is under tree cover (about average for cities), and the dominant land cover is . Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
Airport noise is directional. Ted Stevens Anchorage International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southwest. Neighborhoods to the northeast of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
