Masashi Baba, Fumio Ogawa, Shisaku Hiura, Naoki Asada
Department of Intelligent Systems, Graduate School of Information Sciences, Hiroshima City University

Abstract

The estimated height of the mushroom cloud that formed after the A-bomb explosion at Hiroshima has been a controversial issue for many years. In this work, we have attempted to measure the cloud height from existing photos taken at the time from airplanes and from the ground. First, we determined the precise locations where the pictures were taken. Next, we approximated the three dimensional shape of the cloud using multiple spheroids. Finally, we obtained measurements of the height and width of the mushroom cloud from the approximated cloud shape. Our experimental results suggested that the height reached a maximum of about 16 km.