Artificial Snow

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – Artificial snow needs to be pumped to pull off the Olympics in Beijing

Concept –

Snow that is injected with water to harden it and then treated with chemicals to keep the hardened snow in place, is a form of artificial snow that is recommended for winter competitions.
The Loughborough University report states that by 2050, only 10 of the 20 venues that have hosted the Winter Olympics since 1924 will be able to produce an amount of snow that is capable of holding an international-level competition like the Winter Olympics. The survival of the Winter Games is based on the production of artificial snow.

How is artificial snow produced?

High volumes of water and energy are required to create slopes of artificial snow that are competition-ready. In a world where natural snowfall is steadily reducing, the usage of artificial snow, especially for sports, has significantly increased.
For the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russia used 80% of artificial snow for competitions. That figure rose to 90% for the Pyongyang Winter Games. The 2010 Vancouver Games were also infamous for having to use helicopters to fly in snow for the competitions.
For the Beijing Winter Games, snow making machines from an Italian company called TechnoAlpin have been brought in. Since November 2021, these machines have been pumping out artificial snow.
- These machines produce this snow by pumping out ice particles at the same time as a thin mist of water vapour.
- Both these particles are launched upto 60 metres in the air where they combine to become snow and then fall to the ground.

Why is it problematic that Beijing is producing artificial snow?

The region of Beijing is notoriously low on water.
This has been achieved through an over-reliance on groundwater coupled with the ice glaciers around the area steadily melting since the 1950s at an unsustainable rate.
According to a Greenpeace study in 2018, China’s glaciers had melted by 82% and one-fifth of the ice cover had been lost since the 1950s.

Is it beneficial for competition?

Artificial snow helps in improving technique.It’s kind of a challenge because you’re skiing more on ice than snow. It’s faster and challenging in terms of balance.
The cons are that artificial snow creates harder and faster slopes and therefore the risk of athletes falling and hurting themselves is higher.