Mystic Met closed Europe with computer model And not much data
So the UK Met Office closed European civilian airspace on the
basis of one computer model, which it didn't check against
reality. We already knew that the great volcano shut-down was
based on a model, but we didn't know how little atmospheric
sampling was performed to test the simulation against the
atmosphere. It turns out only four test flights have been made
to sample the composition of the cloud. Matthias Ruete, the
European Commission's transport chief, accused the Mystic Met of
preferring virtual reality to evidence. "We have a model that
runs on mathematical projections. It is probability rather than
things happening," he said. As a result the Met Office continued
to issue projections of where it thought the ash cloud should
be, but was unable to report its density and composition with
confidence. These are critical vital factors an airline needs to
know. European airlines sounded the alarm on Sunday, when they
noticed that the satellite pi