The waters of the Tibetan Plateau are called "tears of the earth" by some literary works. How salty is "earth tears"? The intelligent underwater vehicle can answer. Recently, Harbin Engineering University, Qinghai University and Sanjiangyuan Research Institute formed a joint scientific research team, which rushed to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Tangbo Ancient Road, using intelligent underwater vehicles to detect and collect water quality information from bitter altitude (Doucuo) and river Liqiao (Longyangxia) rivers. This is the first time in China to use the intelligent underwater vehicle to detect and collect water quality information in the plateau area. It is of pioneering significance.

       The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the Asian Water Tower, is one of the most stringent regions in China for water resources management and water environmental protection. Due to the warming and humidifying of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the area of lakes on the plateau increases and the salinity decreases. In recent years, the state has stepped up efforts to protect the water environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In order to analyze the impact of the Plateau warming on the atmospheric circulation, promote the protection and restoration of the water ecological environment, and ensure the safety of the water ecological environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,

       In the past, the traditional artificial underwater stratified exploration was carried out in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It was time-consuming and laborious to put the ship in different designated positions and reclaim the detection equipment for fixed-point measurement. It was greatly influenced by weather and other factors, and the water quality information of certain points could only be obtained. The use of underwater vehicle detection, affected by the weather is small, can collect real-time water quality data within the scope of its navigation, make up for the shortcomings of manual fixed-point data acquisition measurement, saving manpower and material resources.

       The intelligent underwater vehicle used in this scientific investigation was developed by Professor Sun Yushan, Key Laboratory of Underwater Vehicle Technology, Harbin Engineering University, and Professor Li Tiejian, State Key Laboratory of Water and Sand Science, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Tsinghua University. The intelligent underwater vehicle has a high degree of autonomy and can independently detect underwater hydrological information for a long time.

       Under the guidance of Professor Sun Yushan, six members of the scientific research team probed the hydrological information of different depths in the designated waters within three days, and obtained the important hydrological and water quality information of the waters, such as topography, velocity, temperature, salinity, turbidity and pH value.

       Source: Science and Technology Daily