Beijing is making efforts to provide timely and accurate weather
forecasts during the Olympic Games in 2008.
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The Beijing Meteorological Bureau has established a weather
service center for the purpose, vice director Wang Jianjie told a
press conference at the Beijing Olympic Media Center on
Wednesday.
The center is responsible for the release of weather forecasts
for Beijing and co-host cities of the Olympics, she said.
Wang said that forecasting for the Olympics is a tough job in
terms of time, space, accuracy and content. However, her bureau has
already submitted service outlines and operational plans to the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
(BOCOG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in this
regard.
She said Beijing has installed new radars and lunched new
weather satellites in the past two years with an aim to timely
gather meteorological information. In addition, it is upgrading
computer and intranet technologies to meet the relevant needs.
"The research and development of these .new technologies are
under the support of the State Ministry of Science and Technology
as we need to give quality services in prediction, forecasting and
early warning," Wang said.
According to Wang, Beijing has also obtained the support of the
World Meteorological Organization through its research project for
the Beijing Olympics. Some of WMO members, including the United
States and Australia, are taking part in the scheme to back
Beijing's efforts to find new technologies for efficient
now-casting and aggregate forecasting.
To bring more brains to the forecast teams Beijing is pooling
talents from across the nation and is recruiting volunteers for
weather service. Since 2006, a number of mock training exercises
have been held and the "Good Luck Beijing" test events this year
will provide more training opportunities, Wang added.
(BOCOG April 26, 2007)