The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are underway. While the world is celebrating atheletes' extraordinary performances, as one of the meteorological support teams for the Winter Olympics, the CAS Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) is providing event planners with a detailed forecast of wind, temperature, and snow. The usual weather forecasts cover as much as ten kilometers or more. For competition area in Chongli, IAP zoomed in into grids of 450 square meters, and generate hourly forecast for each grid.

In addition, a prediction system called FGOALS-f2 seamless prediction system, also developed by IAP, can ascertain climate patterns for as long as six months into the future. FGOALS-f2 predicts that the average temperature in February 2022 would be warmer than usual by 1-2 degree Celsius. For the 2022 Winter Olympics' organizers, this one-degree difference can impact decisions and planning. The IAP team engages with the Zhangjiakou Weather Centre for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in weekly updates on the forecast so that decision decision-makers can anticipate what's ahead. 

Both long-term and short-term prediction for the event are paired with IAP CAS’ supercomputer power, which can not only achieve the hundred-meter-level prediction, but also process six kinds of elements in the cloud and use the Resolving Convective Precipitation Scheme to get highly accurate results.

Simulation of earth systems by IAP CAS supercomputer. (Image by ZHOU Guangqing)