HYDEsim Update
Published 19 years, 4 months past
I’ve updated HYDEsim to include a key explaining the various overpressure effects—it’s at the bottom of the page—as well as to use generally improved code, having discovered the joys of for (var x in y).
I’ve also been pounding my head against the Google Maps API as I try to figure out how to read and set the map type correctly, so I can include the map type in the link parameters. What’s in the documentation seems wildly different from what I’m getting. When I query map.getCurrentMapType(), for example, I don’t get a type, I get a whole array of stuff that looks insanely cool and useful but is all apparently undefined and therefore useless.
On an even less happy note, the tool has completely broken in IE/Win. Given the lack of anything resembling a useful JavaScript console in Explorer, I have no idea what’s happening, or why. Sorry about that, IE users. It works fine in Firefox and Safari. If someone figures out the problem, let me know in a comment.
In the meantime, here are some approximations of a few famous historical high-yield explosions:
- The Tunguska Event of 1906 (nothing’s mapped there, so switch to satellite view)
- The Halifax Explosion of 1917 (courtesy djsunkid); I suspect the location may be off a bit but I couldn’t come up with anything more accurate
- Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, all in 1945
And, just for extra fun, here are two fictional explosions.
- The explosion set off near the end of “True Lies” (and, via the actual Google Maps, here’s the bridge segment the Marines took down)
- The attack on Denver from Tom Clancy’s novel “The Sum Of All Fears”
That last one assumes I got the yield right, which I may not have, since I don’t own the book and haven’t read since it came out in hardcover. If I remembered incorrectly, let me know what the actual yield was (not the incorrect yield that was first estimated, but the correct one that came later in the book) and I’ll correct the link. Thanks.
Update: thanks to assistance from some helpful folks and some fun hacking around IE/Win’s flaws, the tool is back to working in IE/Win. Yay.
Comments (8)
This is still one of the most frightening uses of google maps – but very cool… in a scary way.
A hit upon a few bugs though (in Safari 1.3 at least):
1) You can’t move around in a map if you click the circles. I think that could be solved with some event-bubbling but I don’t know for sure
2) If I switch to either sattelite or hybrid when viewing either the Hiroshima or Nagasaki links you have in your post, there’s long mysterious delay, and then I just get nothing (no pictures – not even error 404 placeholders), and all the circles and the detonations center move to (0, 0) relative to the map.
I checked Safari’s JS console, but there were no errors, warnings or anything. If you know about these bugs already, just ignore my complaining
Thanks for the feedback, Daniel. Brief responses:
#1: Yeah, I hadn’t mentioned that but it’s a problem. It has to do with how markers are constructed by the Google scripts. There’s theoretically a way to reduce or eliminate their interactive nature, but I haven’t worked out exactly how yet.
#2: I assume that’s due to a lack of satellite imagery in those areas. I’m not sure why there’s a 0,0 move but I’ll look into it.
Did you get my email about the Thermal effects? I have a better formula that should work for most cases.
Hi Eric,
Your location for the Halifax Explosion is close, but like you suspected off by a bit. The actual explosion took place closer to the Halifax side, you can see an illustration here (gotta scroll down about):
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/AtoZ/HalExpl.html
The ship carrying the explosives, the Mont Blanc, ended up resting against Pier 6 just above where the Google Map (at the default zoom level) has placed the Route 3 sign and the Canadian Forces Base Halifax.
My current home is just outside where the 15psi zone would have been.
Thanks, Patrick. I’ve updated the link to be more accurate, based on the map on the page you provided.
Thanks for the fun tool. Now all we need is a link to population density stats for a casualty estimate, and you’ll have Homeland Security sending a cease-and-desist in no time!
You might want to check out XMaps, which would let you use polyline-based circles instead of those huge markers.
If I switch to either sattelite or hybrid when viewing either the Hiroshima or Nagasaki links you have in your post, there”s long mysterious delay, and then I just get nothing (no pictures – not even error 404 placeholders), and all the circles and the detonations center move to (0, 0) relative to the map.
I checked Safari”s JS console, but there were no errors, warnings or anything. If you know about these bugs already, just ignore my complaining
This makes people think as to how close to any major city (target) one may feel comfortable to reside. It begs the question: How close can one reside and work to a putative target to benefit from a city’s higher wages, yet far enough to be safe from we-all-know-what? The usual situation is the closer one works to a target (higher wages) the farther from the target one can afford to live (more costly housing). The less one earns (by working in a job farther from a target) the closer one must live to that target (lack of affordable housing in more distant locations). My onsite service job involves major real estate franchies; To date, I have never heard anything like this from the lips of real estate agents, but I keep my ears open for anything that hints of it.
Here in northern New Jersey, I have overheard talk from emergency management officials that Interstate 287 (a ring highway surrounding the New York City area) has been regarded as a redline. Everything inside it is to be regarded as expendable (people and property). As an onsite computer technician, it is no surprise to me that the Wall Street has been moving their IT infrastructure out to places in Warren, Hunterdon and western Morris county along interstates 80 and 78. These are distant and upwind from NYC and Philadelphia (assuming the jet stream does not blow contrary to is normal westerly course) yet allows quick access by ground transport (or helicopter if need be).