1. Forecasting Weather Patterns to Determine Radioactive Dispersion

4. What are we looking for? Surface Winds Upper-Level Winds Precipitation

5. Surface Winds: Damaged facilities lie on the Central-East coast of Japan Major population centres to the South and Southwest Notable population centres to the North Seoul and Shanghai to the West Therefore, we hope for Westerly surface winds, to direct radioactive material towards the Pacific Ocean

6. Why Precipitation? Radioactive material is scavenged by precipitation More specifically, radioactive particles mix with water vapour particles and are transported by weather systems When saturation occurs radioactive particles are redistributed in the form of precipitation.

7. Forecasting Links: Japan Meteorological Agency: http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html NCAR (NOAA): http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/NCOMAGWEB/appcontrolle r HY-Split Trajectory Model (NOAA): http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT.php

8. References: National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (US) NCEP: National Centers for Environmental Prediction ARL: Air Resources Laboratory ABC News: http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/japan-quake- 2011/nuclear-plants.htm