China's homegrown large UAVs rush to support flood-season rescue

BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China's homegrown large civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are moving swiftly to support the fight against torrential rains, typhoons and other natural disasters in the critical flood season this summer.

The independently-developed large civil UAVs, including the Wing Loong-2H and Haiyan-1, have been dispatched to support disaster relief, disaster prevention and mitigation, and other emergency rescue missions, according to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

The country has entered the annual critical flood season, which normally runs from late July to early August. Large UAVs are performing unique roles in serving disaster monitoring, meteorological monitoring, communication support, post-disaster recovery efforts and more.

The Wing Loong-2H large UAV flew for a total of 45 hours over three consecutive days, from July 20 to 22, over the flood-stricken Hanyuan County under the city of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province, said AVIC.

Responding to the task from the Ministry of Emergency Management, the Wing Loong-2H carried out comprehensive disaster monitoring over the affected areas. It supported searches for missing personnel and provided long-term and stable communications support, said AVIC.

This large UAV provided rescue-command authorities with real-time information in the form of high-definition images, voice and data from the disaster-hit areas, supporting them in confirming risk points, monitoring disaster conditions, as well as efficient and precise on-site command and rescuer dispatch, said the developer.

With its ability to remain in flight for long periods, the Wing Loong-2H also served as an airborne communication base to ensure communication services. It provided stable and continuous communication signals covering a total area of about 2,700 square km during missions over three days, and sent 42,000 rescue-related messages, serving as a lifeline for both people and rescue forces in disaster areas.

As a meteorological monitoring-specialized model, the Haiyan-1 large UAV is playing its part in the typhoon season this summer.

In responding to the task from the Meteorological Observation Center under the China Meteorological Administration, the Haiyan-1 flew into the interior of Typhoon Prapiroon, the fourth typhoon of the year, said AVIC.

It carried out typhoon detection work in cooperation with an aircraft sent by the Hong Kong Observatory. They precisely captured the outer cloud system structure of Typhoon Prapiroon, supporting meteorological disaster prevention and reduction efforts.

In this mission lasting about two hours, Haiyan-1 sent more than 4,200 valid items of data to a meteorological big-data cloud platform and provided them to meteorological authorities and related institutions for further study.

It also obtained data on the temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed and air pressure at different altitudes, allowing meteorological forecasters to clearly observe the three-dimensional structure of the typhoon.

The Haiyan-1 large UAV enabled the forecasters to clearly "see" the inner structure of the typhoon cloud system, helping them to grasp the typhoon's development and make forecasts in a more scientific manner, said AVIC. ■