Earlier this week, the China-Russia Consortium (CRC) space weather facility was unveiled in Beijing, in an effort to speed up the development of meteorological services for international civil aviation while also increasing China's international influence in the sector.
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said the center would help the country's meteorological services for international civil aviation attain its goals more quickly.
According to Yu Rucong, deputy director of the CMA, by collaborating with Russia to participate in international events and meet international obligations, China will beef up its international influence in the domain of space weather aviation services.
The China Meteorological Administration, the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration, and the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring partnered to build and run the center.
It is the first global weather facility in Chinese civil aviation meteorology to be certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and it is the fourth such space weather center.
Aiming for even greater engagement in data exchange, product integration, and forecast verification in order to provide more accurate and practical products and services to the world's civil aviation users, Yu expressed hope that China and Russia will continue to work together.
A first-stage operational mechanism for measuring solar-terrestrial space weather has been built by the meteorological administration in China, capable of monitoring the entire solar-terrestrial spatial causal chain, the administration noted.
Space weather is important for high-tech systems such as satellite functioning, human health, and, in particular, aviation safety and communication, as well as locating and tracking, among other things. Meanwhile, space weather has the potential to cause significant disruptions to the reliability of avionics.
Space weather prediction accuracy in China is comparable to that of the international level, and the country has the capability to create long-, medium-, and short-term forecasts as well.
The CMA began conducting space weather tests in the late 1990s. During the 2002 presidential election, the government approved the construction of the National Space Weather Monitoring and Early Warning center, which began operations in 2004 and is still in existence today.
The preparations for the creation of aircraft weather services began in 2012 when the relevant authorities began working on the project. China and Russia submitted a joint application for the regional space weather center in 2018, and the CRC center was approved by the International Space Station in 2020.
