CHINA-S&T: REAL-TIME DEEP-SEA DATA TRANSMISSION
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Xinhua reported (February 1) that China has achieved real-time transmission of deep-sea data at 6,000-meter depth through its self-developed BeiDou satellites for the first time. It described this as essential to more secure, independent, and reliable deep-sea data transmission. China's most sophisticated research vessel Kexue (Science) returned to the eastern port city of Qingdao on Thursday after wrapping up a 74-day, 12,000-nautical mile expedition. During the trip, Chinese scientists maintained and upgraded the country's scientific observation network in the West Pacific, according to the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researchers replaced batteries on 20 sets of submersible buoys on the network, optimised their positions and installed BeiDou satellite communication modules in them. It disclosed that as the low-volume submersible buoys powered by batteries can only be retrieved once a year, the communication modules were designed to be tiny, power saving and run steadily. Wang Jianing, a researcher at the institute, said "The data collected by the submersible buoys, including the temperature, salinity, flowing speed and direction of seawater, should be transmitted back to the ground lab by satellites" He added "The amount of data was huge" so they developed multi-module communication and transmission technology, greatly lifting transmission efficiency.
(Comment: China began to establish the real-time scientific observation network in the West Pacific in 2014. Wang Fan is Director of the Institute of Oceanology.) |