[Beijing Winter Olympics] Shougang ski jumping platform has reached the expected accuracy of forecasting wind gusts
[Explanation] The countdown to the last month of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Compared with the Summer Olympics, the events of the Winter Olympics are more affected by the weather. Wind speed, wind force, and temperature all directly affect the performance of athletes.
Precise weather forecasting is one of the decisive factors for the success of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
[Concurrent] Chen Mingxuan, Head of Meteorology, National Key R&D Program "Science and Technology Winter Olympics" Project
The Beijing Winter Olympics is at least the only time in the past 20 years that the Winter Olympics will be held in an area dominated by continental winter monsoon climate conditions.
The feature of our Winter Olympics is that it may be in our mountainous outdoor arena. The probability of strong winds and low temperatures is higher than that of previous Winter Olympics.
Because the venues where the previous Winter Olympics were held were more controlled by the oceanic climate, the focus of the previous Winter Olympics on meteorological protection will be very different from that of our Beijing Winter Olympics.
[Explanation] The Beijing competition area of the Beijing Winter Olympics is mostly indoor venues. Only the Shougang Ski Jump is an outdoor venue, which is affected by the weather, especially the wind.
[Concurrent] Zhai Liang, chief of venue forecasts in Beijing
The Shougang Ski Jump is an outdoor (venue), and it may be the Shougang Ski Jump which is more affected (by the weather). Because of its outdoor competitions, because it has athletes "flying into the sky", the influence of wind is still relatively large.
[Explanation] Du Jia, the chief of forecast for the Shougang ski jump, said that the starting point and take-off point of the Shougang ski jump are relatively high, which increases the difficulty of forecasting wind and wind speed.
[Concurrent] Du Jia, Chief of Shougang Ski Jump Forecast
The height of its starting point and our observation site is 48 meters, and the position of its jumping point is 25 meters. We did not have it in our previous business development. We daily reported a wind of 10 meters.
Another point is that it also needs to report hourly for wind elements, and hourly forecasts for gusts are more difficult for us.
[Explanation] Du Jia introduced that there was no live weather station at the location of the Shougang Ski Jump, and there was a lack of data accumulation.
The meteorological team of Shougang Ski Jumping Platform has been conducting winter training every winter since 2018, conducting actual combat drills, accumulating observational data, and finally established a targeted objective forecast method for gusts. The current forecast accuracy of gusts has reached expectations.
[Concurrent] Du Jia, Chief of Shougang Ski Jump Forecast
We have officially carried out 3-4 months of winter training every winter starting in 2018. During the 4 years, our forecasting team conducted many field visits.
Carry out actual forecasts every day, to gradually find out the law of element changes in the Shougang Grand Jump Stadium, such as the law of daily changes in the wind at night or during the day, and the law of changes in its wind direction.
For forecasting difficulties, especially the forecast of gusts, we conducted targeted review discussions and algorithm development.
In the end, we used limited data to establish a targeted gust forecast method.
Dong Zeyu reports from Beijing
Editor in charge: [Li Ji]