Real-time transmission of deep-sea data by China’s western Pacific submarine observation network

　　Qingdao, January 2 (Reporter Wang Wei) China’s new generation of marine comprehensive scientific research ship "Science" returned to Qingdao’s home port this morning (2 nd) after completing the 2016 tropical western Pacific comprehensive investigation voyage.

　　This voyage successfully maintained and upgraded China’s western Pacific submarine observation network, and successfully realized the real-time transmission of deep-sea observation data for the first time. Scientists can grasp the dynamic state of the ocean in real time in the office, changing the previous situation that submarine observation data can only be recovered once a year, and successfully cracked this world-class ocean observation problem.

　　This voyage lasted for 54 days, with a voyage of more than 7,800 nautical miles. Eleven sets of deep-sea submersibles and more than 300 pieces of observation equipment deployed in this sea area in 2015 were successfully recovered, and 14 sets of deep-sea submersibles and more than 440 pieces of observation equipment were redeployed, once again setting a new world record for the largest number of observation equipment deployed and recovered in a single voyage.

　　Researcher Wang Fan, the project leader, secretary of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Institute of Oceanography of China Academy of Sciences, said that in 2016, the project organized the Institute of Oceanography and the Institute of Acoustics of China Academy of Sciences and other units to jointly carry out the technical research on real-time transmission of deep-sea submarine data, and developed two schemes of wireless underwater acoustic communication and wired data transmission, which can collect deep-sea observation data in real time and transmit them back to the shore-based office via satellite. In this voyage, the above two schemes have been successfully implemented. Real-time transmission of data will accelerate the improvement of China’s marine operational forecasting system and the output of scientific research results, and will certainly improve China’s marine environment and climate forecasting ability.

　　"We have established a young and promising scientific research team. Through the statistical analysis of the big data of voyage surveys in the past three years, we have quantitatively evaluated various engineering and technical indicators to guide the scientific planning of voyages, the optimal design of submarine targets and the reasonable arrangement of operations, and establish a set of effective scientific workflows for the construction and maintenance of observation networks, which will provide a demonstration for the construction of ocean observation networks in China." Wang Fan introduced.

　　According to reports, the 2016 comprehensive expedition voyage to the western Pacific Ocean is a part of the strategic pilot science and technology project "Material and Energy Exchange in Tropical Western Pacific Ocean System and Its Impact" of China Academy of Sciences. The survey content has achieved full coverage of multi-disciplines, multi-scales and multi-layers, with more emphasis on the observation of the ocean at a depth of 1,000 meters, and more emphasis on the fine observation of the whole water layer mixed with small-scale turbulence in the ocean, so as to fully serve the national strategy of going deep into the sea. Through the maintenance and optimization of observation network equipment, the vertical resolution of ocean current observation in the upper ocean has reached 8 meters, the vertical resolution of ocean current and temperature observation in the deep ocean has reached 500 meters, and the time resolution of all observation elements has reached 1 hour.

　　After more than three years of independent construction by Chinese scientists, the submarine observation network of the western Pacific successfully obtained the data of temperature, salinity and ocean current in the representative sea area of the tropical western Pacific for 2-3 years, which will provide valuable data for Chinese scientists to explore and study the three-dimensional structure of the tropical western Pacific circulation, the variation of warm pool and its impact on climate change in China. With the continuous accumulation of observation network data year by year, the supporting role for scientists to study and interpret the deep ocean will increase exponentially.