BDS applications facilitate China’s Antarctic survey: head of Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping

This photo taken on April 10, 2024 shows China's icebreaker Xuelong 2 in Hong Kong, south China. China's first domestically made icebreaker Xuelong 2 arrived in Hong Kong for a five-day visit, expecting to receive 8,500 visitors. Xuelong 2, which came to Hong Kong for the very first time, entered the Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui on Monday morning after completing China's 40th Antarctic expedition. (Photo: Xinhua)

Applications of the China's home-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, or known as the BDS, has played an important role in addressing various challenges during China's 40th Antarctic scientific expedition that just successfully completed earlier in April, Zhang Xiaohong, director of the Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping (CACSM) at the Wuhan University, told the Global Times on Monday.

"Our Antarctic research team of four faculty and student members have just returned from the mission," Zhang said during a media event organized by the China National Space Administration, ahead of the upcoming China Space Day.

According to the CACSM director, the main applications of the BDS included monitoring the real-time movement of snow vehicles in high-latitude polar regions, and establishing a continuously operating reference site at Kunlun Station to monitor the dynamic changes of ice bands in real-time.

Moreover, during self-research tasks, snow vehicles need to travel nearly 1,000 kilometers, relying on BDS for navigation. And BDS navigation technology is also used in conducting drone surveys and other tasks at the research base, Zhang revealed.

Zhang highlighted Wuhan University's achievements in Antarctic scientific research, stating that the university has been participating in Antarctic scientific expeditions since 1984, contributing to China's Antarctic scientific endeavors for 40 years.

He emphasized that Antarctica has become part of China's national strategy, serving as a new route for maritime transportation, a new source of resources, and a new frontier for technological competition. Wuhan University and its team at the Hubei Luojia Laboratory play a crucial role in surveying, remote sensing, and navigation technologies research and development, enabling the country to conduct extensive scientific research in Antarctica.

Zhang further pointed out the entire Antarctic is covered by over 14 million square kilometers of ice and snow, making monitoring changes in the Antarctic region crucial. With the accelerating global climate change, the melting of the Antarctic ice cap could lead to a rise in sea levels of approximately 60 meters, which would have far-reaching implications for human survival. To monitor these changes, China must rely on surveying and remote sensing methods. For many years, the team from Wuhan University has been making efforts in this regard and has conducted extensive surveying work in Antarctica

He also mentioned China's establishment of several first-of-their-kind overseas BDS tracking stations in Antarctica, contributing significantly to the construction of the BDS-2 system and ensuring the accuracy of satellite orbits.

China's satellites, including ocean satellites, meteorological satellites, and BDS satellites, play a crucial role in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. In the past, China relied on foreign data, but now it can rely on domestically produced satellites, making polar work more independent and controllable. Therefore, in the future, more domestically produced products will play an important role in Arctic and Antarctic regions, Zhang said.