Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 23. Question: What kind of weather protection is needed for the Winter Olympics?The reporter will take you to study
Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Yao
June 23 is the International Olympic Day, and preparations for weather protection for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics have also entered the sprint stage. Meteorological conditions are closely related to the smooth progress of ice and snow sports. The reporter recently interviewed the relevant person in charge of the meteorological department to take you to study together what kind of weather protection is needed for the Winter Olympics.
Unique weather conditions and meteorological guarantee are facing challenges
Unlike the Summer Olympics, which are mostly held in stadiums and stadiums, the Winter Olympics are mostly held in outdoor mountainous areas. The terrain is complex and the local microclimate features obvious. The requirements for weather conditions are more stringent.
“Winter Olympic Games need to find the “window period” according to the weather forecast. The accurate monitoring and forecast of wind, temperature, humidity and visibility directly affect the schedule, athletes’ competition performance and competition safety.” Executive Deputy Director of the Winter Olympic Meteorological Center of China Meteorological Administration Qu Xiaobo said that meteorological conditions are one of the core factors affecting the success of the Winter Olympics.
According to experts, the Beijing Winter Olympics is the only Winter Olympics held in the climatic conditions dominated by continental winter monsoons in the past 20 years. Strong winds, low temperatures, low visibility, and snowfall will be the main weather risks faced by the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. At the same time, weather protection may also need to deal with challenges such as complex precipitation, sand and dust weather.
“The winter Olympics snow projects account for 70%, and they are all carried out outdoors. Different projects and venues have different requirements for meteorological conditions.” Shi Shaoying, deputy director of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory and head of the on-site meteorological service team in Yanqing competition area Said, “For example, downhill competitions in alpine skiing require a track vertical drop of 800 meters, and the high-altitude stage and the low-altitude stage have different meteorological conditions.”
Experts said that in the absence of mature technical solutions that can be used for reference in the world, the meteorological monitoring, forecasting and service of mountainous areas at the competition area are the challenges facing the meteorological work of the Winter Olympics.
“One hundred meters level”, “minute level” forecast, “one policy, one policy” fine service
In response to multiple forecasting problems, the Meteorological Department spent four years with the Winter Olympic Games as the core, laying a comprehensive monitoring network for the Winter Olympics in Beijing urban areas, Yanqing and Chongli, Hebei, and densely deployed 441 sets of various detection facilities.
“We have built a ‘100-meter-level and minute-level’ objective weather forecast model support system, which can achieve a 100-meter resolution under complex terrain and quickly update the key weather elements of the Winter Olympics for 10 minutes.” Qu Xiaobo said, at the same time , The short-term numerical weather forecast system has greatly improved the accuracy of the forecast of temperature, humidity, wind field and other elements under complex terrain and underlying surface conditions, which is helpful to provide support for fine weather decision-making 24 hours in advance.
This sophisticated forecasting system was tested during the “Meet in Beijing” test event in February and April this year. According to the weather forecast provided by the weather service team, the official training or competition schedules of the 14 events have been adjusted.
Refinement is not only reflected in the improvement of forecast accuracy, this Winter Olympics weather forecast also “tailor-made” forecast services according to the requirements of different projects, and strive to achieve “one policy”.
“We continue to communicate with the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee and meet the needs, and understand that due to the particularity of the ski jumping venues, we need to pay attention to the difference in the environmental wind field and the wind speed of the jumping point. At the same time, we focus on the sensitivity threshold of aerial skills and snow skills to wind and strong wind For the possible impact on the cable car, we are further adjusting the forecast service content.” Shi Shaoying said.
Deep integration into various fields is also “off the field”
In addition to escorting various events in the stadium, the fields of transportation, medical care, and security also need to be deeply integrated into weather protection. At the beginning of the construction of various projects in the Winter Olympics, a team of meteorological experts entered the site to provide forecast information by time period, region, and intensity for each high-impact weather process.
According to Qu Xiaoli, deputy director of the Hebei Meteorological Service Center, in view of the impact of road icing caused by winter rain, snow and freezing weather, the meteorological department uses refined road temperature forecasting technology to reduce the road temperature forecast error at night to about 1 degrees Celsius. Provide accurate meteorological reference for snow melting and deicing.
In March of this year, the Qinghe Station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway deployed a “smart sentry”-a miniature smart weather observation station to monitor the temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind direction and wind force in the Qinghe station area in real time. The monitoring data can be viewed in real time through the mobile client. .
These observation devices were “born” in the Olympics, but not limited to the Olympics. They will benefit the vast number of passengers traveling to and from Beijing and Hebei in the cold and hot weather. Jiang Zhenke, deputy director of the Qinghe Station Management Office, said: “Observation equipment can not only provide references for flood control, snow shoveling, and response to extreme weather in the station area, but also provide accurate weather services for passengers.” (End)