Hong Kong media said that last month, Beijing and Taipei reached a landmark agreement, and the two sides will work together to monitor electromagnetic signals in space in the future.
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post on November 12, according to the agreement, Taiwan can obtain some data collected by the electromagnetic monitoring satellites that the mainland will launch next year. In exchange, Taiwan will also take out some of the data to share with the mainland.
reported that the electromagnetic monitoring satellite is a reconnaissance satellite equipped with advanced sensors that can intercept extremely weak radio signals. The data it collects can be used for civilian purposes, such as studying electromagnetic interference caused by earthquakes and volcanic activities in the upper atmosphere, but can also be used for military purposes, such as determining the location of radar stations, missile launch facilities and other concealed defense facilities.
reported that some earthquakes release electromagnetic waves before they occur, and scientists hope to collect and study those signals to further promote the development of earthquake prediction. The project, co-financed by Beijing and Taipei, was launched last month at the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
reported that Professor Liu Zhengyan, a scientist in charge of the project in Taiwan, said that focusing on studying earthquakes will bring many benefits to Taiwan. He said the new satellites on the mainland will carry a series of better sensors than similar satellites launched by other countries. Taiwan is on an active fault line and faces high risk of destructive earthquakes . If satellites can collect abnormal electromagnetic signals within hours or days before an earthquake, it can save lives and reduce economic losses.
reported that Professor Liu Zhengyan, who is currently teaching at the Institute of Space Sciences of Taiwan's "Central University", said that the mainland and Taiwan are equal partners in the project, and both sides contributed the same amount of data, and scientists from both sides participated. Instruments on satellites may capture some military-sensitive signals, such as radar beam , but "for us, these artificial signals are noise." "The noise must be eliminated to display signals produced by nature, which is what we need."
reported that Li Zaosh, an associate researcher at the Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that due to military uses, electromagnetic monitoring is a very sensitive field. He said: "This is the first time. I have never heard of any kind of cooperation with Taiwan in this field before. This data is usually confidential."
A researcher at the Taiwan Research Center of Fudan University in Shanghai told Hong Kong media that the launch of the project may mark the efforts made by both sides to ease cross-strait tensions. The researcher, who asked to be anonymous due to the political sensitivity of the project, said: "The Mainland extended an olive branch, and Taiwan accepted it, but both sides remained silent because the ice was far from thawing. The Mainland is also becoming more confident about the technological advantages of military equipment. Mainland Army may know Taiwan better than the Taiwan military."
reported that the Straits Exchange Foundation is a semi-official agency established by the Taiwan authorities to handle technical or commercial affairs with the mainland. An official at the foundation said that the two sides had previously reached an agreement on trade and disaster prevention.
reported that the new electromagnetic monitoring satellite in mainland China is expected to be launched into low-Earth orbit early next year. It will be the first satellite of a multi-satellite constellation that should be able to cover the world by 2020.
It is reported that these new satellites will be named after Zhang Heng, who is just as talented as Leonardo da Vinci, who is famous in Europe. Zhang Heng was a scholar-official in the Eastern Han Dynasty nearly 2,000 years ago, and made outstanding achievements in a series of fields such as astronomy, mathematics, engineering, geography, art and poetry. One of his most famous inventions was the " seismometer ". According to historical records, this instrument can detect vibrations hundreds of kilometers away and measure the approximate direction of the epicenter.
reported that the "Zhang Heng" satellite will operate at an altitude of 500 kilometers, and each satellite will complete a scanning of the earth in less than two weeks. Once this network is built, researchers can detect and track the source of electromagnetic signals from anywhere on Earth.
"Zhang Heng" satellite virtual simulation picture (Hong Kong "South China Morning Post" website)
