China concludes the second phase of the meridian project for space climate monitoring

One of China’s main scientific infrastructures, the Chinese Meridian project (CMP), successfully completed the national acceptance of its second phase on Friday (22), the National Center for Science Academy of Sciences reported. The project should boost cutting -edge scientific research and strengthen the country’s space climate forecast services.

Also known as the terrestrial space environment monitoring network, CMP is the first global comprehensive terrestrial monitoring installation that covers the space between the sun and the earth, from the solar atmosphere to the space near the Earth.

The Sol-Terra Space is the main region used by humans for spatial activities. Severe solar storms can cause satellite failures, communications interruptions, navigation deviations, and falls on electrical networks. Therefore, the forecast and early alert of space climate is of utmost importance.

Led by the National Center for Space Science, the project had its first phase built between 2008 and 2012. The second phase began in 2019 and now has more than 30 observation stations, covering the entire Chinese territory and polar regions.

With state-of-the-art technology, the CMP-2 is completely monitoring solar storms, from solar atmosphere to space near Earth, providing strategic and independent data for Chinese space climate forecasts. It also supports fundamental research on the dynamics of the Sol-Earth space environment and the physical processes of space physics.