After a computer programming effort that has been underway for a good ten years, the first downloadable version of the earthquake forecasting and triggering computer program I have been working on is now available.

To download the program, visit the Meteoquake Web site listed below, click on the link at the top left of the main page, and then follow the links until you get to a Web page called Etdprog.html. The program can be downloaded from there.

It is in a 10 megabyte freeware download zip file. And there is a considerable amount of support documentation and help files for the program, in particular ReadMe.html and ReadMe.doc files.

These earlier versions will probably be usable mostly by more experienced computer programmers. Anyone can use the program who has a regular PC running Windows Vista, XP, 2000, or NT. But it is largely intended for use by serious earthquake forecasters and researchers. It works surprisingly well considering it uses an indirect approach for telling where an earthquake is likely to occur. Feedback that I have received has been that people would like it to be more “user friendly.” Hopefully that will come with time. For a starting point it is important that serious forecasters have access to the technology.

The source code for SunGP.exe, one of the support programs that generates data regarding the positions of the sun and the moon in the sky at specific times is presently available at the Meteoquake Web site. It is likely to be a while before the very complex source code for the main forecasting program will be available. Right now the goals are to see what success people have with getting the program running and to let governments and researchers around the world know about its existence.

People who hear Ear Tones should like the program as it will draw maps for them pointing to the locations around the world where it determines the fault zones responsible for their Ear Tones could be located. The best electromagnetic signal that I myself had to work with before the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in China turned out to be an Ear Tone time sent to me by someone living in China, weeks before the earthquake occurred.

Will this computer program help break what might be described as an international earthquake forecasting logjam?

I believe that it has the potential to do that. It will probably largely depend on the interest level by scientists and computer programmers.

• Meteoquake