Noise Levels in Hanscom Afb, MA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
51 dBA
Average noise across Hanscom Afb
Quiet office
303
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
20% of Hanscom Afb residents
85 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Hanscom 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 303 Hanscom Afb residents, or 20.3%, live above that level. By land area, 31.9% of Hanscom Afb is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Hanscom Afb residents, grouped by direction from the center of Hanscom Afb. Eastern Hanscom Afb carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Hanscom Afb carries the lowest. Just 19% of residents in Central Hanscom Afb live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Eastern Hanscom Afb.
Central Hanscom Afb
50.2 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
19% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Hanscom Afb
53.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
28% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Hanscom Afb
51.2 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
18% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Hanscom Afb
52.7 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
40% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Hanscom Afb sounds about 25% louder than Central Hanscom Afb to the human ear, a 3.2 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 do you need to be?
produces an estimated 85 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 quiet office.
At source
85 dBA
Food blender at arm’s length
165 ft
71 dBA
City bus interior
330 ft
63 dBA
Busy restaurant
660 ft
56 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
¼ mile
48 dBA
Quiet office
½ mile
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 32% of Hanscom Afb sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 35% 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
General Edward Lawrence Logan International (BOS) sits southeast of Hanscom Afb. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, 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 80 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Hanscom Afb, particularly to the northwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Hanscom Afb
The bar chart below shows the share of Hanscom Afb residents in each noise band. About 70% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 1% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Hanscom Afb Compares
Hanscom Afb sits at the louder end of the spectrum. Below: how Hanscom Afb's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Devens, Newton Lower Falls, Townsend Harbor, and Shirley Center.
Average noise level (dBA)
Hanscom Afb's 50.7 dBA pop-weighted average is at the louder end of the spectrum. Massachusetts as a whole averages 54.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Hanscom Afb because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 20.3% of Hanscom Afb residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 31.9% of Hanscom Afb's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Massachusetts average of 40.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Hanscom 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 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 32% of Hanscom Afb is under tree cover (about average for cities), and the dominant land cover is low-intensity developed land. 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. General Edward Lawrence Logan International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southeast. Neighborhoods to the northwest 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.
