Original title: Fight on the plateau line to string together "thousand-eyed dzi"
At 15:58 on July 8, when the staff of the 39th Research Institute of CETC were debugging antenna gain outdoors, a lightning bolt crossed the sky.
On July 8, the torus solar radio imaging telescope project under the morning fog was like a huge "thousand-eyed dzi".
On July 7, technicians debugged equipment on the calibration tower of the second phase of the 100-meter-high Meridian Project.
On July 7, Zhang Yang, the operation and maintenance personnel of the Torus Solar Radio Imaging Telescope project, debugged the antenna before the heavy rain.
On July 7, Yang Yang, an engineer at the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for the "post-90s", wore his own modified anti-ultraviolet clothing and head cover to conduct overall system debugging outdoors.
On July 8, Zhang Zheng (front from right), an engineer at the 16th Research Institute of CETC, was responsible for debugging the antenna with his colleagues.
On July 8, Ma Qun, senior engineer of the 16th Research Institute of CETC, conducted a test of the engineering receiving link subsystem.
At noon on July 8, Wu Lin, deputy director designer of the second phase of the Meridian Project, took a lunch break in the office.
On July 8, staff member Lang Jie Zhima archived more than 300 documents that completely recorded the construction of the torus solar radio imaging telescope project.
On March 28 this year, through the 146 unit antennas that have been preliminarily integrated, researchers successfully identified pulsar flickering for the first time, and preliminarily verified the ability of the torular solar radio imaging telescope for pulsar detection
On July 8, the weather in Katong Town, Daocheng County, Kardze Prefecture, changed as soon as it changed. Ye Ailin, site construction leader of the 39th Research Institute of CETC, and his colleagues are conducting antenna gain debugging experiments at the construction site of the national major scientific and technological infrastructure - Space Environment Ground-based Integrated Monitoring Network (Meridian Project Phase II) Toroidal Array Solar Imaging Telescope Project. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, and the rumbling thunder was followed by a downpour, and Ye Ailin and his colleagues had to stop the experiment they were doing and temporarily find a place to hide from the rain. "This rain won't be long, and when the rain stops, we'll continue." He has worked on the project construction site for more than 480 days and is called half a meteorological "soil expert" by his colleagues. Not only can he "observe words" and read the clouds on the plateau, but he can also predict weather changes in the same way. In the town of Katong, more than 3,800 meters above sea level, many scientific researchers, like Ye Ailin, fought silently, hoping that the major national scientific and technological infrastructure under construction could be operated as soon as possible, providing key exploration assistance and technical support for the development of China's space science undertaking, and enabling the mainland to enter the advanced ranks of the world's space science field.
The torus solar radio imaging telescope project is a landmark equipment of the national major scientific and technological infrastructure - space environment ground-based comprehensive monitoring network (Meridian Project II), which is the world's largest and most powerful solar radio imaging observation facility, and a key point in a large network laid by Chinese scientists to explore the solar-terrestrial space environment. It is a comprehensive aperture radio telescope consisting of 313 antennas with a diameter of 6 meters and shaped like a pot lid. The antennas are evenly distributed on a 1-kilometer diameter ring, and the 100-meter-high calibration tower in the center of the ring provides a calibration reference for the entire observation link, like a huge "thousand-eyed dzi". The telescope operates in the radio band of 150 megahertz to 450 megahertz to image the activity of solar eruptions. After completion, it can realize real-time monitoring of the sun, monitor solar radio flares, track the formation, evolution and interplanetary process of coronal mass ejection (CME), which will play an important role in exploring the dynamic characteristics and changes of the solar-terrestrial space environment in high time and space, and will play an important role in the field of night astronomy research such as pulsar search.
At high altitudes, thin oxygen and strong winds have brought great challenges to the construction of the Torus Solar Radio Imaging Telescope Project. However, a group of young researchers resolutely chose to go to the plateau to contribute their youth to the smooth construction of the second phase of the Meridian Project. From 2018 to the present, Wu Lin, deputy director of the solar radio imaging telescope project of the second phase of the Meridian Project, has stepped on every mountain here with his feet. Ma Qun, a female senior engineer at the 16th Research Institute of CETC, has also been rooted in the project for a long time, and her work is not inferior to her male colleagues.
On November 13, 2021, the torus solar radio imaging telescope project equipment completed system integration. This marks that the world's largest solar radio imaging telescope has taken initial shape and entered the stage of joint debugging and testing. After months of hard work by researchers and builders, on March 28 this year, the scientific research team of the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used 146 unit antennas that had been preliminarily integrated to successfully identify pulsar flickering from continuous radio images for the first time, identify the flicker of pulsar J0332+5434 in the image, and the pulsar positioning accuracy reached 1.8 arcminutes, which preliminarily verified the ability of the device for pulsar detection and laid the foundation for expanding its application.
These scientific researchers who are working the plateau work closely with engineering and technical personnel to provide strong support for the scientific research of the second phase of the Meridian Project through advanced scientific instruments and technical means.
Reporter He Haiyang Wu Dan Photo report
(Source: Sichuan Daily)