Latest News
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China Unveils Shenzhou-21 Crew for Space Station Mission
This undated photo shows Shenzhou-21 crew members Zhang Lu (C), Wu Fei (R) and Zhang Hongzhang. Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday. (Xinhua)
Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday.
The Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship is scheduled to be launched at 11:44 p.m. Friday (Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, said Zhang Jingbo, spokesperson of the agency.
The three astronauts are space pilot, flight engineer and payload specialist, respectively, representing the three types of Chinese astronauts in service, he added.
Zhang Lu was a crew member of the Shenzhou-15 mission. Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang, both from the third batch of Chinese astronauts, will carry out the spaceflight mission for the first time.
Before being selected as an astronaut, Wu Fei was an engineer at the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and Zhang Hongzhang was a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This mission is the sixth manned flight mission since the space station entered the application and development phase, and the 37th flight of China's manned spaceflight program.
The Shenzhou-21 astronauts will complete in-orbit rotation with the Shenzhou-20 crew, and stay in the space station for about six months, according to the spokesperson.
The new crew will carry out work on space science and application, perform extravehicular activities and cargo handling, install space debris protection devices, deploy and recover extravehicular payloads and equipment. They will also participate in science education and public welfare activities, and conduct in-orbit experiments.
During their stay in orbit, the Shenzhou-21 crew will welcome the Tianzhou-10 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-22 crewed spaceship.
The Shenzhou-20 crew will return to the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region after completing the in-orbit handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew, the spokesperson added. (Xinhua)
This undated photo shows Shenzhou-21 crew member Zhang Lu. Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday. (Xinhua)
This undated photo shows Shenzhou-21 crew member Wu Fei. Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday. (Xinhua)
This undated photo shows Shenzhou-21 crew member Zhang Hongzhang. Chinese astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang will carry out the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceflight mission, and Zhang Lu will be the commander, the China Manned Space Agency announced at a press conference on Thursday. (Xinhua)
Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Editor: Gao Yuan
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Research News
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New Study Shows High-Resolution CMIP6 Models Boost Accuracy of Summer Precipitation Simulations in High Mountain Asia
High Mountain Asia (HMA), the source of Asia's major rivers and a critical contributor to downstream water security and ecosystem health, has seen a dipole pattern in summer precipitation over the past 50 years: drying in the south and increased moisture in the north. While global climate models are the primary tools for studying the drivers and projections of these changes, their reliability is hampered by the region's complex terrain and unique climatic conditions. This raises a question: Can boosting model resolution enhance the accuracy of HMA precipitation simulations?
A team of researchers led by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has now answered that question. Their study, recently published in Journal of Climate, quantifies the added value of higher horizontal resolution in simulating long-term HMA precipitation trends and identifies the underlying physical mechanisms.
In this study, the team analyzed six pairs of CMIP6 models with different horizontal resolutions to evaluate how resolution impacts the simulation of summer precipitation trends between 1951 and 2014. They also investigated the physical processes driving any improvements in accuracy.
The results showed that high-resolution models outperformed their low-resolution counterparts in capturing observed precipitation trends, particularly across the southern margin of HMA and adjacent regions. Specifically, the high-resolution simulations reduced the wet bias by approximately 65%, the researchers noted.
"The performance of high-resolution models does not come from local topographic effects, but rather from their ability to capture remote forcing linked to warming sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Indian Ocean," explained Prof. ZHOU Tianjun, the study's corresponding author.
In-depth analyses of moisture budgets and moist static energy budgets revealed that the high-resolution models can better capture a warm SST pattern over the central tropical Indian Ocean. This SST anomaly suppresses precipitation over the South China Sea and the Maritime Continent, triggering a Rossby wave response that creates an anomalous anticyclonic circulation over the northern Bay of Bengal. This circulation then transports dry air into southern HMA, damping local convection and reducing the excessive rainfall in the region.
The study confirms that, even with identical physical frameworks, higher horizontal resolution improves the accuracy of HMA precipitation trend simulations.
Linear trends of summer precipitation during 1951–2014 in HMA (units: mm·month⁻¹·decade⁻¹). (Image by Prof. ZHOU Tianjun's team)
Source: CAS
Editor: GAO Yuan
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