Beijing is making efforts to provide timely and accurate weather forecasts during the Olympic Games in 2008.

 

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)