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.

 

中国利用自主研发的北斗卫星首次实时获得6000米的深海数据。

 

China's most sophisticated research vessel¹ 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 (CAS).

 

Researchers replaced batteries on 20 sets of submersible buoys² on the network, optimized³ their positions and installed BeiDou satellite communication modules⁴ in them.

 

As the low-volume submersible buoys powered by batteries can only be retrieved⁵ once a year, the communication modules were designed to be tiny, power saving and run steadily⁶.

 

"The data collected by the submersible buoys, including the temperature, salinity⁷, flowing speed and direction of seawater, should be transmitted back to the ground lab by satellites. The amount of data was huge," said Wang Jianing, a researcher at the institute. So they developed multi-module communication and transmission technology, greatly lifting transmission efficiency.

 

The breakthrough research vessel Kexue made changed the situation. Before, real-time observation of marine⁸ data had relied on foreign remote sensing satellites. Now there was improved data transmission security and reliability⁹, according to Wang Fan, director of the Institute.

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