A Sneeze
Open accessAbstract
A human sneeze can eject droplets of fluid and potentially infectious organisms. The image sequence captures, in increments of 20 msec, the emission of a sneeze cloud produced by a healthy person. The sneeze was produced naturally, without the introduction of additives, colorants, or contaminants for visualization. High-speed video (Video 1, normal speed; Video 2, slowed down by a factor of 67), recorded at 1000 frames per second, shows a turbulent cloud that consists of hot and moist exhaled air, mucosalivary filaments and drops, and residues from droplet evaporation (nuclei). The ejection lasts up to 150 msec (top row) and then transitions into a freely evolving turbulent puff cloud (middle and bottom rows). The largest droplets rapidly settle within 1 to 2 m away from the person. The smaller and evaporating droplets are trapped in the turbulent puff cloud, remain suspended, and, over the course of seconds to a few minutes, can travel the dimensions of a room and land up to 6 to 8 m away. A Sneeze (00:11) A human sneeze can eject droplets of fluid and potentially infectious organisms. The image sequence captures, in increments of 20 msec, the emission of a sneeze cloud produced by a healthy person. The sneeze was produced naturally, without the introduction of additives, colorants, or contaminants for visualization. High-speed video (Video 1, normal speed; Video 2, slowed down by a factor of 67), recorded at 1000 frames per second, shows a turbulent cloud that consists of h…
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Dynamic respiratory events may project particulates well in excess of 2 m.
“Dynamic respiratory events may project particulates well in excess of 2 m [18–21], which is also supported by physical modelling investigations [15, 22–25].”
From The protective performance of reusable cloth face masks, disposable procedure masks, KN95 masks and N95 respirators: Filtration and total inward leakage (2021) · cites this paper as [20]
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The fluid dynamics of disease transmission
Bourouiba, L. (2021) · Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics · doi:10.1146/annurev-fluid-060220-113712 · Cited by 366 · see citing works
Self-citationMechanisms of Airborne Infection via Evaporating and Sedimenting Droplets Produced by Speaking
Netz, R. R. (2020) · The Journal of Physical Chemistry B · doi:10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c05229 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Duncan, S., Bodurtha, P., & Naqvi, S. (2021) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0258191 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Azanaw, J., Dagne, H., Andualem, Z., & Adane, T. (2021) · BioMed Research International · doi:10.1155/2021/6686392 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Soon, J. M., Wahab, I. R. A., Hamdan, R. H., & Jamaludin, M. H. (2020) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0235870 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bourouiba, L.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bourouiba, Lydia
- ORCID
- Bourouiba, Lydia
- Venue
- New England Journal of Medicine
- Publisher
- Massachusetts Medical Society
- Published
- 2016-08-25
- Volume
- 375
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- e15
- ISSN
- 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-4406
- OpenAlex
- W2521419085
- Cited by
- 104
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 2.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Infection Control and Ventilation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Computational Mechanics › Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
- Keywords
- sneezing, respiratory droplets, droplet evaporation, aerosol clouds, droplet settling, airborne transmission, exhaled breath, high-speed imaging
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Sneezing
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