Revelation! The technology behind the green "freedom with snow" of the Winter Olympics "escort ship"

Lanzhou, 21 Jan (Xinhua) -- The pace of the Beijing Winter Olympics is approaching, and a sports event that has attracted global attention is about to begin. What is less well known is that a group of scientific and technological workers have spent more than five years on the snow to build dreams, not only to build China's ice-like snow track independently, but also to develop efficient snow storage technology to truly realize the green "freedom of snow".

Snow laying, water injection, compaction, measurement, analysis... Hundreds of combined tests of different water injection techniques and compaction methods, comparative analysis of sets of data, the hardships of the formation of the ice-like snow production scheme and the joy of the first successful production, Wang Feiteng is still unforgettable.

Mainland ice and snow scientific research started late, holding international events less experience, especially this time is held in the continental monsoon climate zone, the meteorological conditions are unfavorable, and the competition period is in the winter and spring alternate periods, prone to extreme weather. In order to provide a good event experience for athletes around the world, mainland scientists have focused on solving the problem of snow support.

In 2017, under the leadership of Qin Dahe, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary director of the State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the research team of key technologies for snow protection for the Beijing Winter Olympics was formally established. Wang Feiteng, a researcher at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also joined in.

Ice and snow are the "soul" of previous Winter Olympic Games, and snowmaking, snow preservation and snow storage are the keys to ensuring the smooth progress of ski competitions. But for a long time, related technologies have been monopolized by foreign countries. "Even those of us who have long been engaged in glacier research and conservation are unfamiliar with many concepts such as ice and snow." Wang Feiteng said that the team is not afraid of challenges, facing difficulties, and has begun research and development work since 2017.

Make a "military order" and lean over and bury your head. In the past, relying on snow inspector observation to predict the snow quality of the track was time-consuming, labor-intensive and inaccurate. Today, in the Genting Ski Park of Zhangjiakou At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the team has established a dense meteorological observation network, combined with key parameters such as snow quality data of the ski slopes, applied snow quality monitoring and forecasting technologies, and built a snow quality discrimination model for the track, which was applied in the assessment of snow quality risk levels in the 2021 test track.

Yin Shuiqing, associate professor of the School of Geography and Remote Sensing Sciences of Beijing Normal University, said that in the past, it was rare to predict the snow quality of the track to reach kilometer resolution, and now the model can accurately predict the meteorological conditions of different locations of the slope in the next 72 hours and 100 meters, and can also simulate and predict the dynamic evolution of the snow quality of the track over time. The successful development of this model also laid a solid foundation for the team to overcome the ice-like snow track.

Ding Minghu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, introduced that icy snow is a form of snow quality, and its surface has a thin layer of hard ice shell, which is used to reduce the friction of the track surface for skis. Building an ice-like snow track is a "highway" for alpine skiing, big slalom and other projects.

From 2019 to 2021, the team began experimenting with ice-like snow making at places like Genting Ski Park and National Alpine Ski Center. The temperature in the test area once reached more than -20 degrees Celsius, and the cold air was overwhelming, and Wang Feiteng, Ding Minghu and the team members fought in the front line for more than 10 hours. "The process seems simple, just lay snow and water injection, but there are no specific parameters for how thick the snow is laid, how long it will be injected with water, etc."

The production technology of the ice-like snow track under different climatic conditions has been overcome, and the Chinese has independently created an ice-like snow track, and the professional monitoring equipment of the ice-like snow track such as the ice and snow hardness measuring instrument and the ice and snow particle size measuring instrument has also been localized, and the cost has been greatly reduced, providing a green and efficient model for the construction of ski tracks in the "post-Winter Olympic era".

Shougang's big jump platform successfully stored 5,000 cubic meters of snow, which is also inseparable from the team's efforts. According to different meteorological conditions, combined with parameters such as sunlight exposure rate, they use "geotextile + straw", "geotextile + sawdust", "geotextile + foam plastic" and other ways to "cover the quilt" for the snow. After trial and error, the "geotextile + foam" solution with the best economy and practicality stood out.

"Snowmaking, snow protection, snow storage and other snow support work have been able to meet the needs of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games." Wang Feiteng and other team members said that at present, the snow storage scheme created by the team has been technically demonstrated in many ski resorts in China, including the International Snow Federation Cross-country Skiing Points Series held in May last year.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Li Linwei Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Yong Kai

Source: Author: Xinhua News Agency