On March 23, CAS Trench Research Expedition Team’s TS03 Voyage returned successfully. This voyage was executed by IDSSE-CAS Exploration 1 for research expedition. The research expedition team, following the guiding ideology of "precisely exploring 7,000m and actually reaching 10,000m", carried out research expedition and sea test verification of the deep-sea equipment researched and development independently from 7,000m to the full ocean depth in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. In this sea test, the equipment developed by XIOPM, CAS independently has stood the test of extreme environment and successfully completed relevant research expedition tasks.
XIOPM has carried out the research of underwater optics technology since 1980s. The equipment in this sea test is the full-ocean-depth high-definition camera independently developed by the Joint Laboratory for Ocean Observation and Exploration (jointly by XIOPM and Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology）. The equipment is made with breakthroughs in multiple technologies such as deep-sea chromatic correction, full-ocean-depth pressure window, underwater image enhancement and deep-sea image color restoration. The camera was mounted to "Tianya" Lander to submerge to the depth of 7,000m for three times, of 10,000m for twice and of max 10,909m in succession, and actually collected 12h 10,000m high-definition video data. The camera recorded Liparis living at the depth of 8,152m for the first time, the max depth with fish living observed in the world. Relevant video image data recorded by the camera provide important original data for researches of multiple disciplines of marine organism and physical oceanography of the Mariana Trench deeps.
The full-ocean-depth high-definition camera developed by XIOPM (the Joint Laboratory for Ocean Observation and Exploration）is the first and the only one of its kind independently developed in China. Bao Gengsheng, Chief Scientist and Research Fellow of the CAS Trench Research Expedition Team introduced: "main tasks of 10,000-m video collection in this voyage were all completed with the full-ocean- depth camera, which is a breakthrough in China’s history of underwater video shooting, and of deep-sea research expedition." Ding Zhongli, Academician and Vice President of CAS expressed: XIOPM headed by Comrade Zhao Wei smoothly completed research of the equipment in a very short time, making important contributions to deep-sea research expedition and worthy of praise.
Successful completion of this sea test indicates that multiple technologies of China in Hadal trench exploration and research have reached international advanced level. It is reported that, as developers of the equipment for this sea test, 21 units participated in this test/research expedition voyage of the deep-sea equipment in the Mariana Trench, including IDSSE, Shenyang Institute of Automation, XIOPM, Institute of Geology and Geophysics and Institute of Physics and Chemistry of CAS. This sea test voyage was set out on Jan. 15 and returned on March 23, lasting for 68 days.
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