BeiDou achieves real-time transmission of deep-sea data at 6,000 meters

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, a move 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 (CAS).

Researchers replaced batteries on 20 sets of submers- ible buoys on the network, optimized their positions and installed BeiDou satellite communication modules in them.

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.

“The data collected by the submersible buoys, includ- ing the temperature, salinity, 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 changes to the situation.

Before, real-time observations of marine data had relied on foreign remote sensing satellites.