Lead
"Water transfer by air" is no longer a dream, and Chinese scientists have proposed the idea of the Tianhe Project, which will realize water transfer by artificial intervention in the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere, and solve the problem of uneven distribution of water resources between the north and the south.
This project will fully stimulate the mainland's spirit of scientific innovation and provide new ideas for the mainland's water resources management.
However, how should the Tianhe project be realized?
What specific technical means are required for this?
What are the challenges faced in the implementation of the Tianhe Project?
What kind of impact will it have on the allocation of water resources on the mainland?
1. Divert water from the sky.
The distribution of water resources between the north and the south of China is uneven.
In the southern part of the continent, water resources are abundant and can support agricultural and industrial water.
However, in the northern part of the continent, water resources are scarce, especially in the arid western regions, which suffer from drought all year round.
In order to solve this problem, the mainland has carried out a series of engineering construction, such as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
However, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project can only solve the problem of water resources allocation on the ground, but cannot solve the problem of water resources allocation in the air.
With the continuous progress of science and technology on the mainland, scientists have proposed a new plan, since it is impossible to change the distribution of water resources on the ground, then use scientific and technological means to change the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere.
This scheme is known as "water transfer by the air".
The concept of water transfer by air is not new, as early as 1960, Soviet scientists came up with a similar idea, that is, to use scientific and technological means to extract water vapor from the atmosphere to provide water resources for arid regions.
However, due to the limitations of the technology at the time, this idea was not well realized.
Nowadays, the level of science and technology on the mainland has been continuously improved, and scientists have resumed research on "water diversion in the air".
In 2016, scientists from mainland China proposed the idea of the Tianhe project.
The Tianhe Project aims to provide water resources to arid areas by artificially intervening in the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere and achieving water diversion from the air.
The idea for the Tianhe project came from a rain in Xinjiang, where 2,500 tonnes of rain fell in 2014 in Urumqi.
The rain did not fall in Urumqi, but on the Bayinbrook Grassland, 1,000 kilometers away from Urumqi.
This bizarre rain caught the attention of scientists, who believe that the situation may be caused by anomalies in the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere.
To study this phenomenon, scientists have set up a large-scale satellite monitoring system in the Xinjiang region to monitor the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere.
After a long period of observation, scientists have found that the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere in Xinjiang is very complex, and the source of water vapor in the atmosphere is not only from Xinjiang, but also from the Indian Ocean.
With the onset of the monsoon, this water vapor will flow into Xinjiang to form rainfall, but the pattern of water vapor flow in Xinjiang is not very obvious, and it does not rain every year.
Based on this principle, scientists have put forward the idea of the Tianhe Project, since the law of water vapor flow in the atmosphere is not obvious, then scientific and technological means can be used to artificially intervene in the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere, guide the flow of water vapor to arid areas, so as to provide water resources.
The core goal of the Tianhe project is to use manual intervention to guide the flow of water vapor to arid areas and realize "air water transfer".
In order to achieve this goal, the Tianhe Project needs a series of scientific research and technical support.
First, there is a need to establish a large monitoring system to monitor the flow of water vapor in the atmosphere.
Second, scientific and technological means.
At present, scientists on the mainland have established an atmospheric monitoring system consisting of satellites, airplanes, radars, sondes, and other equipment.
This system can monitor the water vapor in the atmosphere in an all-round way and understand its flow patterns.
However, the current monitoring scope of this system is not extensive enough, covering only the continental scale, and cannot monitor the global water vapor flow.
Therefore, scientists hope to expand the scope of this monitoring system to the whole world through international cooperation, so as to better understand the flow of water vapor on a global scale.
In addition, in order to achieve aerial water transfer, the Tianhe project also needs to involve artificial rainfall and other technologies.
The principle of artificial rainfall is actually not complicated, by putting some substances in the atmosphere that can attract water vapor to condense, so as to form a certain layer of clouds, and eventually form rainfall.
However, people's understanding of artificial rainfall began in the 50s of the last century, when the United States and the Soviet Union began to try to experiment with artificial rainfall, but due to the limitations of scientific and technological means at that time, the effect of artificial rainfall was not very good.
Nowadays, with the continuous development of science and technology in the mainland, researchers in the mainland have also proposed a new artificial rainfall method, that is, the use of lasers for artificial rainfall.
The principle of laser artificial rainfall is the same as that of other artificial rainfall, but the principle of laser is used, which can better control the scope and amount of artificial rainfall, so as to improve the efficiency of artificial rainfall.
However, laser artificial rainfall is still in the theoretical stage and has not yet been applied in practice.
In addition, the Tianhe project also needs to involve cloud control technology.
At present, researchers in the mainland have developed a new type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which can be used to control the clouds, so as to achieve the control of rainfall.
However, the control technology of this UAV still needs to be continuously optimized and improved in order to better realize air water transfer.
3. Challenges and impacts.
The implementation of the Tianhe project is faced with many difficulties and challenges.
First of all, there is the issue of funding.
To achieve global monitoring of water vapor, a large number of satellites are needed to monitor it, and the construction and launch of these satellites require a lot of money.
In addition, a series of base stations and monitoring points will need to be built to monitor various data, and a large amount of money will be required for construction.
Secondly, there is the technical difficulty of human intervention.
In order to achieve air water transfer, we need to master a series of technologies, how to let the water vapor in the atmosphere flow to the place we need, how to form clouds in the atmosphere, how to accurately control the amount of rainfall, these are very difficult technical problems.
At present, these technologies are still in the experimental stage and have not yet been applied in practice.
In addition, the implementation of the Tianhe project will also have a certain impact on the environment.
The implementation of artificial rainfall will lead to an increase in rainfall, which will have a certain impact on the local ecological environment.
Therefore, in order to implement the Tianhe project, it is necessary to fully consider the environmental impact and minimize its impact on the environment.
The implementation of the Tianhe project will have a significant impact on the allocation of water resources on the mainland.
The implementation of the Tianhe Project will provide new ideas for the mainland's water resources management.
Through manual intervention, the water resources in the north and south of the mainland can be better allocated to better meet the needs of local production and life.
epilogue
The idea of the Tianhe project demonstrates the strength of the mainland's scientific and technological innovation, and researchers are developing new technologies to improve the efficiency and feasibility of the project, and are also seeking financial support to promote the implementation of the project.