Chinese elite science ship Xiangyanghong 01, which is conducting the first around-the-world integrated maritime research, departed from Punta Arenas, and would join Xuelong, China's ice breaker, in the country's 34th Antarctic mission. It is the first time that China has conducted a joint Antarctic scientific expedition simultaneously by two ships.
Xiangyanghong 01 left the harbor on 30th Dec. 2017 local time. The ship will cross Drake Passage and start a 47-day multidisciplinary maritime research in the Antarctic waters.
Xuelong is currently conducting missions in the southeast pole and it is focused mostly on the ice area. While Xiangyanghong 01 conducts missions mainly in the southwest pole and its research is concerned with the marine environment of the outer edge of ice area. It will carry out the country’s first integrated maritime research in the northeast waters of the Antarctic peninsula and obtain the first scientific data such as seabed topography, crustal structure and contamination status. Through the quasi-synchronous research, we can grasp the pulse of the ocean more clearly and accurately to explore the process and mechanism of ocean changes.
(Source: CCTV, Translator: Liu Min)
