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Mathematics and Meteorology - Interactive Test #8

Forecasting plane crashes due to volcano ash

Video editing by Mariano Tomatis

This video comes from a series of parapsychological experiments performed by The DHARMA Initiative.

On April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, threwing ash several kilometres up in the atmosphere which led to air travel disruption in northwest Europe for six days from 15 April 2010, including the closure of airspace over most of Europe.

In order to forecast the dispersion of ash over Europe, the NAME (Numerical Atmospheric dispersion Modeling Environment) was used, a powerful programme that takes weather data and plots how clouds of particles are likely to spread. It was first developed in 1986 after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in order to predict the spread and deposition of radioactive gases or material released into the atmosphere.

Different models, involving a strange interaction of mathematics, meteorology and psychology, were developed in the 70s in the context of the Mathematical Forecasting Initiative, after the eruption of Usu volcano in Japan (August 1977).

In this interactive experiment, doctor Pierre Chang offers the possibility of testing your psychic abilities: will you be able to forecast (and prevent) a plane crash due to a cloud of Black Smoke?

The fossil angel was created by Zen0

© 2024 Mariano Tomatis Antoniono • Dharma Initiative • Mathematical Forecasting Initiative • Italian Division (Turin)