Soohorang (one of the mascots of Pyeongchang 2018) saying goodbye on the night of the closing ceremony. Photo by Ivan Arias.
The first part of the ICE-POP campaign ended last Sunday when the 2018 Winter Olympic Games were officially finished. However, we will closely monitor the weather and provide information from Pyeongchang during the Paralympics as well. The strong wind that characterized the Olympics has stopped blowing in the last week. This brought unexpected changes in the weather. Also this week was crucial for the campaign since the closing ceremony was scheduled. The ICE-POP team closely monitored the sensors to notice any signature that could help predict any weather that could affect the last days of competition. One of these events occurred on February 23, when D3R Radar from NASA detected unexpected snow coming in. The figure below shows radar reflectivity from D3R for this event after it had developed.
D3R PPI Reflectivity image at Ku frequency band.
Due to the closing of the games, transportation was difficult last week. There were traffic jams and long lines everywhere. It is not an easy task to run a field campaign during a massive event such as the Olympics; it takes a lot of work and logistics. None of this would have been possible without KMA staff, who have coordinated carefully each and every detail of this campaign and have been such wonderful hosts. Many thanks to them. The next picture shows personnel of KMA, NASA, and CSU sharing a cup of coffee while planning some strategies for the campaign.
Photo by Hyejin Lee
Tags: GPM, ICE-POP 2018, Pyeongchang, Winter Olympics