China on Wednesday announced it is officially putting its new comprehensive research aircraft into operations to carry out geophysical survey and remote sensing missions.

China Geological Survey, under the nation's Ministry of Natural Resources, made the announcement at the ongoing China Mining Conference and Exhibition 2019 in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

According to experts from the institution's research center, China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Land and Resources (AGRS), the research aircraft, called "Hangkong Dizhi No. 1", can fly a distance of 4,000 kilometers at a speed of 280-500 kilometers per hour, at altitudes ranging from 200 to 10,000 meters.

It means the aircraft, the largest of its kind in the world, is able to conduct all-terrain geological surveys both on land and sea.

"The 4,000-kilometer voyage indicates that one sortie of the aircraft can cover an area like the city of Shenzhen (about 2,000 km) with precision of 1:50,000. And with a precision of 1:100,000, a sortie can survey a doubled area. Therefore the plan can realize the land survey of our country's 9.6 million square kilometers of land territory and the marine survey over three million square kilometers of blue territory, or in other words, the full coverage survey of both land and sea," said Chen Bin, deputy chief engineer of the AGRS.

The research plane has excellent geological survey capabilities as it is highly integrated with multiple aero geophysical surveys and remote sensing devices.

"The aircraft can carry out flight for aero geophysical survey, remote sensing, and is able to conduct the stereo survey of both surface and groundwater world. We have overcome the interferences happened among a variety of signals, especially those formed during parameter modification. It is the only one in the world that has realized the four parameter modification of aero geophysical survey and remote sensing on one plane," explained Chen.

The AGRS also said that since the research plane entered trial operation at the beginning of the month, it has carried out multiple aero geophysical surveys on oil and gas resources in China's Qinghai-Tibet region and South China Sea areas.

(Source: CCTV PLUS)