China plans massive listening programme at the North Pole after declaring success in Arctic test of underwater device
- Despite physical and geopolitical challenges, China planted a listening device in the Arctic Ocean for the first time and says it worked better than expected
- ‘The opening and commercial use of the Northeast Passage has become a reality. Our polar research started late’: Polar Research Institute of China
The acoustic information collected by the planned large-scale listening network could be used in a wide range of applications, including “subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters,” the institute said in a study published in the Chinese Journal of Polar Research last month.
“These are some of the hottest issues in the world.”
The Shanghai-based institute is a central government agency that plans and coordinates China’s polar activities.
Chinese scientists and engineers installed the “polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system” on a chunk of floating ice in a remote area of the Arctic Ocean on August 9, 2021.
“[It is] one of the regions with the most severe climate change in the world,” the institute said.
It can be massively used in the construction of the Arctic Ocean environmental monitoring network
The system carried several instruments, but the most important was a vector hydrophone with multiple sensors arranged in different orientations to measure both the pressure and particle motion of sound waves.
Sound pressure data can be used to track whales, seals and other sound-emitting sources. The horizontal and vertical vibration of water particles can help scientists understand marine conditions such as currents, waves and the sea floor.
Fresh data was transmitted to a command centre in China via satellites.
When they left, the scientists were not sure how long the hardware could survive in the harsh polar environment. But its performance surpassed their expectations.
“All the sensors equipped in the system exceeded the design indicators by 17.4 per cent,” the institute said.
The hardware was built with mature technology and at low cost.
“It can be massively used in the construction of the Arctic Ocean environmental monitoring network,” it said.
The Chinese government has conducted several surveys and placed many monitoring devices, including buoys, in the Arctic region.
But it had never planted a listening device there, the institute said, partly because of the technical challenges of leaving automatic monitoring of the Arctic water unattended. The long-term operation of the system requires, for instance, a lithium battery that can survive low temperatures and also has sufficient energy to power a large number of electronic equipment and regular communication with the satellite.
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Geopolitics may also be a contributing factor.
The US government has strongly opposed Chinese activities in the area, which is covered by ice caps that can be used by nuclear submarines for transit and hiding.
The rapid melting of ice caps is expected to create a much shorter route for marine trade between East Asia, Europe and even North America, giving China greater incentive to engage in Arctic affairs.
“The opening and commercial use of the Northeast Passage has become a reality,” the institute said. “Our polar research started late.”
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In the Polar Research Institute test, the vector hydrophone was activated every two hours to detect targets of interest in an attempt to save energy.
In a trial that lasted more than three months, it detected loud, low-frequency noises that could be produced by human activities such as shipping and oil and gas exploration.
The stream of data also helped Chinese scientists better understand the impact on sound by the formation and melting of ice.
As seawater freezes, it can release brine and change the salinity and density of the surrounding water.
The amount of hydrophone data is more than 1,000 times greater than that collected by other sensors combined, according to the institute.
Some researchers complained it was too expensive to send the data.
The institute used an American communication satellite service in the test.
“The Iridium communication system is mostly used in the high-latitude regions of the Arctic at present, the communication cost is high and the signal is unstable due to the lack of satellite update and maintenance in recent years,” the institute said.
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It is not known if the network is already under construction, when it will be finished or how big it will be. The institute did not respond to queries.
In a report in April, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, said China’s Arctic research was focused on advancing scientific knowledge, including sea ice composition, space weather and marine life.
Beijing plans to expand its land-based presence in the region but faces increasing roadblocks from the US and other countries.
In 2018, the Polar Research Institute of China tried to buy an airport in Lapland, Finland. The deal was reportedly killed by the Finnish government under pressure from the US.
