Sound exposure


Sound exposure is the integral, over time, of squared sound pressure. The SI unit of sound exposure is the pascal squared second.

Mathematical definition

Sound exposure, denoted E, is defined by
where
Sound exposure level or acoustic exposure level is a logarithmic measure of the sound exposure of a sound relative to a reference value.
Sound exposure level, denoted LE and measured in dB, is defined by
where
The commonly used reference sound exposure in air is
The proper notations for sound exposure level using this reference are or, but the notations,, dBSEL, or dBSEL are very common, even if they are not accepted by the SI.