Earth ID: 12848

NASA Studies Snow At The Winter Olympics

Released on February 8, 2018

This Winter Olympics, NASA will be studying how well researchers can measure snow from the ground and space and provide better data for snowstorm predictions.

NASA will make these observations as one of 20 agencies from eleven countries in a project led by the Korean Meteorological Administration called the International Collaborative Experiments for PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, or ICE-POP.

NASA.gov feature: NASA Seeks the Gold in Winter Olympics Snow

Drone footage captured of the Dual-frequency Dual-polarized Doppler Radar, or D3R, instrument in South Korea during the 2018 Winter Olympics. The D3R has been placed on the roof of the DaeGwallyeong Regional Weather Office to measure the quantity and types of falling snow, such as sleet or light and fluffy snow. The radar operates at very similar wavelengths to those used onboard the GPM Core Observatory to provide similar snow observations but from a different vantage point.

Credit: Aaron Dabrowski

The NASA-Unified Weather Research Forecast Model (NU-WRF) is one of five real-time research forecast models being used in ICE-POP. The animation is a NU-WRF model output that shows a snow event on Jan. 14, 2018 in South Korea. The left animation labeled "precipitation type" shows where rain, snow, ice, and freezing rain are predicted to occur at each forecast time. The right labeled "surface visibility" is a measure of the distance that people can see ahead of them.

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NASA's observations and experimental, real-time snow forecasts will be made at 16 different points near Olympic event venues every six hours and then relayed to Olympic officials. The NASA-Unified Weather Research Forecast Model (NU-WRF) is one of five real-time research forecast models being used in ICE-POP.

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NASA deployed the Dual-frequency Dual-polarized Doppler Radar (D3R) system that measures the quantity and types of falling snow. The NASA instrument uses a team of Colorado State University engineers to support radar development, maintenance, and operations and will operate the radar during the Olympic and Paralympic games. The animation here shows the D3R rotating to change its viewpoint (motion is not in real time).

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Source Material

For More Information

NASA Seeks the Gold in Winter Olympics Snow

ICE-POP

Credits

Scientists:
Walt A. Petersen (NASA/GSFC Wallops)
Bradley Zavodsky (NASA/MSFC)
David B. Wolff (NASA/WFF)
V. Chanddrasekar (Colorado State University)
Ivan Arias Hernandez (Colorado State University)
Shashank S. Joshil (Colorado State University)
Mohit Kumar (Colorado State University)
Alexander Morin (Colorado State University)

Engineers:
Manuel Vega (NASA/GSFC)
Aaron Dabrowski (ASRC Federal Space and Defense)

Producer:
Joy Ng (USRA)

Writer:
Kasha Patel (NASA/GSFC)

Support:
Jacob Reed (Telophase)
Patrick Lynch (NASA/GSFC)

Videographer:
Aaron Dabrowski (ASRC Federal Space and Defense)

Data Visualizers:
Mike Taylor (SSAI)
Joshua Stevens (SSAI)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12848

Mission:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
DLESE >> Cryology
SVS >> GPM
SVS >> Global Precipitation Measurement
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Olympics
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation >> Snow
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Ground Validation

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0