Prediction of Wind Fields using Weather Pattern Recognition: Analysis of Sailing Strategy and Real Weather Data in Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Abstract

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competitions were held in Enoshima Bay between the 25th of July and the 4th of August 2021. The climatological and the strategical analysis of the race area for the Swedish Sailing Team was developed in the three years prior to the Olympics (Masino et al., 2021). The result of the three years’ research was a tool named ”Call Book” that provides strategical rules for sailors and coaches both in terms of expected ranges of wind speed and direction and also in terms of trends with explanations for each identified weather pattern. The support team was working not only on the forecast but also on the specific analysis of the weather data in the race areas as measured on the water by the Olympics organizing authorities and monitored through the SAP Analytics website (SAP Sailing Analytics, 2021). Two race areas are herein taken into consideration, namely Enoshima and Zushi, where the Swedish Team athletes sailed most of the races. A statistical meta-analysis on the comparison between the forecast issued using the ”Call Book” and measured data on the race areas is carried out, investigating the specific outcome of the strategy of the races with the forecasted meteorological data.