Domestically-made polar meteorological stations start operation

The domestically produced meteorological stations newly installed in the Antarctic region during China's 40th Antarctic expedition have smoothly entered day-to-day data-collecting operations, with the last of the three stations completing its trial run and debugging on Feb 12 (local time), reported People's Daily.

The last polar weather station was installed in the Enderby Land and the other two stations were installed at the permanent airport of the Zhongshan Station and in the Grove Mountains, respectively.

To date, all three stations are in smooth operation with the systems and equipment functioning well and the monitoring data showing no abnormality.

It is notable that the essential components of the polar weather stations such as the power system, control system and sensor system are all domestically made, which had high dependence on foreign imports in the past.

The home-made stations will contribute to enhance China's independence in polar meteorological observation as the Antarctic is among the three climate-sensitive areas on Earth and a hotspot of climate change research.

The meteorological stations are characterized by excellent environmental adaptability, reliability, high measurement accuracy and ease of maintenance. They are capable of real-time observation of meteorological factors such as temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wind speed, wind direction and radiation.

In addition to facilitating climate change research, the polar weather stations are able to provide data and information for engineering projects in the polar regions such as building scientific observation platforms and wind-power stations. What's more, the collected meteorological data is useful for the safe operation of polar airports.