China launches satellite for natural disaster monitoring

China launched an electromagnetic monitoring satellite on Saturday, which is expected to enhance the country's "space-air-ground" integrated monitoring capabilities for major natural disasters.

A Long March-2D carrier rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 15:56 (Beijing Time), successfully sending the Zhangheng 1-02 satellite into its planned orbit, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The CNSA said that this marks a significant step forward for China in the field of space-based observation of the Earth's physical fields.

Named after the ancient Chinese inventor Zhang Heng, who created the world's first seismoscope over 1,800 years ago, the satellite was jointly developed by China and Italy. It is the first operational satellite dedicated to exploring the Earth's physical fields under China's medium and long-term civil space infrastructure development plan, according to the CNSA.

With a designed lifespan of six years, the satellite is equipped with nine payloads, including an electric field detector co-developed by China and Italy, as well as a high-energy particle detector developed by Italy.

It will carry out quasi-real-time monitoring of global electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, the ionosphere and the neutral atmosphere, detecting electromagnetic anomalies caused by geological and human activities, as well as monitoring thunderstorm and lightening activity, according to the CNSA.

"One of its functions is to monitor the electromagnetic waves and electromagnetic fields of the Earth, as these influence the crustal activities and electromagnetic patterns on Earth. Another function of the satellite is to detect the ionosphere and the neutral atmosphere structure, mainly serving for [monitoring] extreme weather conditions," said Peng Wei, deputy director of the system engineering department of the CNSA.

Peng said that scientists will use these data to study the correlation between changes in the Earth's physical fields and geological activities, and to support research on the prediction of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, extreme weather, and space weather disasters.

The satellite will significantly enhance China's early perception, risk assessment, and monitoring and early warning capabilities for major natural disasters, Peng added.

It will also provide data support for emergency management, resource mapping, and communications and navigation industries, while fostering scientific and technological cooperation in related fields among countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Zhangheng 1-02 satellite is an updated version developed based on the Zhangheng 1-01 satellite, which is a scientific research satellite with the main task of verifying related technologies. The 02 satellite, an operational one built on the capabilities of the 01 satellite, will be more extensively involved in practical application.

The Zhangheng 1-01 satellite, launched in 2018, remains in normal operation, while the new satellite has richer physical measurements. Working in tandem, the two satellites will conduct collaborative observations, effectively improving the horizontal spatial and temporal resolution of observations, according to Peng.

"The operational satellite largely inherits the state of the scientific research satellite, with most aspects being similar, but it has a different payload - an ionospheric optical instrument. This payload mainly can measure certain parameters of the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere structure more accurately, and we expect it will improve the precision of these measurements by an order of magnitude," said Peng.

Saturday's launch marked the 581st mission of China’s Long March rocket series.

China launches satellite for natural disaster monitoring

A veteran agricultural scientist and deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, shared his decades-long mission to reduce the country's reliance on food imports and safeguard its food security by developing high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties.

Gao Derong, a researcher from the Lixiahe Regional Institute of Agricultural Sciences in east China's Jiangsu Province, detailed his relentless pursuit of better wheat varieties while taking a question at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing "two sessions", a major event in China's political calendar.

He has dedicated more than 30 years to wheat breeding and succeeded in the fight against Fusarium head blight, a serious fungal disease of cereals, including wheat and other small-grain crops, by implanting "disease-resistant genes" inside seeds.

"After 30 years of countless and repeated trials, we finally developed our first Fusarium head blight resistant variety in 2021. It exhibits strong disease resistance and high yield, with a yield of up to 600 kg per mu (0.066 hectare) in a demonstration plot. This means farmers can use fewer pesticides, produce more wheats, and secure a more stable harvest," said Gao.

Addressing the tight rotation schedule in the rice-wheat rotation system in south China, his team developed time-smart varieties like "Yangmai 25," which can be sown as late as December and still achieve a yield of 6,00 kg per mu.

"We have also cultivated a high-quality weak-gluten wheat variety tailored for biscuits and pastries, reversing China's long-standing reliance on imports. These grain varieties, like elite guard teams, help us hold our rice bowl firmly and contribute to securing our food security," Gao said.

As an NPC deputy, Gao extends his research from the lab to the field, gathering farmers' concerns alongside experimental data.

"My duty as a deputy is also written in the fields. 'Can we construct high-standard farmland at an accelerated pace?' 'Can we have more targeted agricultural subsidies?' These are the voices I often heard in the fields, which I carefully recorded like experimental data and transformed into suggestions," he said. Gao said he will continue working to enable the land to yield more grain, help farmers increase their incomes, and contribute to ensuring national food security.

This year's "two sessions," the annual meetings of China's top political advisory body and national legislature, opened in Beijing Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. As the world's second-largest economy embarks on the inaugural year of its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period, these gatherings will serve both as a review of past achievements, and as a strategic compass guiding the nation's future development.

NPC deputy vows to fortify China's food security through seed innovation