Chinese weather satellites help deepen China-Kyrgyzstan cooperation

China has continued to deepen cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in meteorological satellite application, joint scientific research, and emergency disaster prevention support.

Kyrgyzstan and northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are both located in the Tianshan mountain system and share similar climate conditions. Driven by climate change, regional extreme weather events have increased, making joint meteorological disaster prevention, mitigation and relief a key priority. With the help of the China Meteorological Administration's Fengyun-2 satellite receiving and application system, Kyrgyzstan has received a steady and reliable supply of meteorological observation data.

In May this year, the city of Manas in Kyrgyzstan was hit by a mudslide triggered by torrential rainfall, and the local authorities declared a state of emergency. The Chinese side deployed Fengyun-3 and Fengyun-4 satellites in time to carry out high-frequency dynamic monitoring, capturing the evolution trend of the disaster and providing data support for Kyrgyzstan's disaster relief and emergency response.

"Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese side has activated the relevant emergency support mechanism twice to help Kyrgyzstan respond to flood disasters. Meanwhile, we have continued to optimize the 'Mazu' intelligent meteorological early warning solution, opened and shared independent innovation achievements including Fengyun satellites and meteorological AI models, to provide support for meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation as well as climate situation analysis in Central Asia," said Zheng Zhaojun, chief expert of the International User Service Center under the National Satellite Meteorological Center.

Relying on the Urumqi Institute of Desert Meteorology of the China Meteorological Administration, China has established a stable cooperation platform with Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries. Through multiple rounds of sample analysis, research teams have systematically reconstructed the patterns of temperature, precipitation and glacier mass changes across Central Asia over the past 200 to 500 years.

Chinese weather satellites help deepen China-Kyrgyzstan cooperation

Russia said Thursday that its forces launched large-scale airstrikes across Ukraine, targeting key military-industrial, energy and transport facilities, while Ukraine said on the same day that it retaliated with drone attacks on Russian territory.

From Wednesday night through the early hours of Thursday, Russian forces launched another wave of airstrikes on Ukraine, hitting the capital Kiev, Kiev region and Kharkiv region, among other areas. Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city came under ballistic missile attack. Part of the metro infrastructure on Kiev's South Bridge was damaged, and traffic on the bridge in both directions was temporarily closed that day.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces launched a large-scale strike on Ukraine in the early hours of the day, using ground-based precision weapons and drones to strike Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises involved in the production and storage of medium- and long-range cruise missiles and drones, transport facilities in Kiev, port facilities in Odesa region, and maritime vessels serving the Ukrainian military. Russian drones also struck one 330 kV substation each in Kiev region and Zhytomyr region during the daytime on Thursday. Russia said the substations supply power to Ukraine's military-industrial and logistics systems.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported the same day that starting from 18:00 on Wednesday, Russia launched a large-scale joint assault involving missiles and various types of drones, with the main focus on Kiev. Ukrainian air defense claimed to have shot down or neutralized 181 Russian drones, while confirming that 32 locations were struck during the raids.

In addition, the Ukrainian military also launched large-scale drone attacks on Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said that between 08:00 and 20:00 local time on Thursday, 49 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over various regions of Russia. And from Wednesday night to Thursday morning, Russian air defense systems destroyed a total of 808 Ukrainian drones over more than 10 regions of Russia and the Black Sea.

Russia strikes key Ukrainian facilities, Ukraine counters with drones