Sonification:
Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data. Auditory perception has advantages in temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency resolution that open possibilities as an alternative or complement to visualization techniques.
For example, the rate of clicking of a Geiger counter conveys the level of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the device. [Wikipedia]
Noted in “How sounds from space are revealing otherwise hidden cosmic phenomena,” Ajay Peter Manuel, NewScientist (28 December 2022, paywall):
It wasn’t until the 1960s that astronomers began listening to their data on purpose. And it was Donald Gurnett at the University of Iowa who pioneered the technique. When data came back from the Voyager 1 mission as it flew past Io, a moon of Jupiter, in 1979, Gurnett listened to the signals and identified low-frequency radio waves. In the 1980s, Gurnett and his colleagues used sonification to identify problems affecting the Voyager 2 mission as it traversed the rings of Saturn. When they converted signals from the craft’s radio and plasma wave science instrument into an audio representation, they heard sounds that they described as “resembling a hailstorm”. This led to the discovery that electromagnetically charged micrometeoroids the size of grains of dust were bombarding the probe.
Ears as highly sensitive sensory analyzers. BONUS: An example from the article, sourced on YouTube:
