1. A method for analyzing physical phenomena in a process plant, the method including: detecting, in a mobile device operable to receive and display information about a present operation of the process plant and to transmit control actions to affect the present operation of the process plant, a physical phenomenon in the process plant; converting, in the mobile device, the detected physical phenomenon to digital data representative of the physical phenomenon; transmitting the digital data to an expert system connected to a unitary data storage storing process data automatically collected from a plurality of types of data sources associated with a plurality of data nodes within the process plant; analyzing the digital data in the expert system to determine a state of one or more process entities of the process plant by: generating a model of the state of the one or more process entities based upon correlations between a plurality of variables of the process data stored within the unitary data storage; identifying an abnormal physical operating condition of the one or more process entities based upon the generated model and the digital data; and determining a cause of the abnormal physical operating condition based upon the generated model and the digital data; and automatically initiating a change to one or more process control parameters to correct the abnormal physical operating condition, wherein detecting the physical phenomenon comprises detecting a sound indicative of the abnormal physical operating condition of the one or more process entities.