China Focus: Homegrown aircraft sustain China’s weather modification capabilities

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) — The continuously progressing Chinese homegrown aircraft are adding power to the country’s weather modification capabilities, improving people’s livelihood and serving economic development.
A homegrown MA60 weather modification aircraft was recently delivered to the meteorological service center under the Hubei Meteorological Service, according to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the country’s leading aircraft manufacturer.
The move marks the number of the Chinese independently-developed MA60 weather modification aircraft to a total of five, marking a significant advancement in the homegrown aeronautical equipment in the sector.
This new aircraft will serve the vast areas of the country’s central region, including Hubei Province, said the AVIC.
It will help form a cross-region operation capability of the weather modification sector, in joint efforts with those aircraft serving in the country’s northeast and northwest regions.
They will jointly contribute to the improvement of people’s livelihoods and the country’s socio-economic development, as well as sustain ecological conservation, AVIC added.
With the delivery of this aircraft, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) had a total sum of eight high-performance aircraft for national operations in the weather modification sector, including the five MA60 aircraft, according to the CMA.
The MA60 weather modification aircraft was developed by AVIC XAC Commercial Aircraft Co., Ltd. in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.
“This new delivery marks an important advancement in the scale and capabilities of homegrown weather modification aircraft in China,” said Xu Xiangde, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences.
This MA60 weather modification aircraft is installed with six major subsystems for weather-modification operations, such as atmospheric detection, catalytic operations, air-ground information and mission integration, according to the CMA.
It is capable of carrying out large-scale joint operations, scientific exploration, and effective air-ground communications.
Also, it allows for autonomous and controllable data processing, with a single operation covering an effective area of up to 9,000 square kilometers and a maximum operational duration of six hours.
High-performance weather modification aircraft boast a high operational ceiling, long range, significant payload capacity and stable performance. Thus, they are capable of conducting precise operations tailored to various types of precipitation systems for different purposes.
Xu highlighted that, amid climate change, the operation of artificial weather modification is taking on an increasingly indispensable role in safeguarding food security, ecological safety and water security. ■