A big country of aerospace with black technology

"How big is this desert?"

Zhang Xingyang put his right hand on his eyebrows and looked into the distance.

Even with two 5.1-inch eyes, I can't see the end of the Gobi Desert.

"48,800 square kilometers."

The middle-aged man standing next to Zhang Xingyang said with a face filled with vicissitudes of life.

"We have been controlling desertification here since my grandfather's generation, and now we have only limited the desert to this area."

"What I want to see most in my life is for this desert to be fixed."

The middle-aged man pointed to the towering sand dunes in the distance: "I heard from the elders that when they first came here, there were not that many mobile sand dunes in the area."

“Later on, as the number of mobile sand dunes increased, it became more and more difficult for them to control sand.”

Moving sand dunes are caused by the extremely low vegetation coverage on the sand dunes, which causes the sand dunes to be blown by the wind in windy weather.

Thereby constantly moving in the local area.

"Fifty years have passed since then."

The middle-aged man said with tears in his eyes.

Zhang Xingyang was also in awe.

A person's life does not necessarily last fifty years.

The local desert control people devoted almost all their working time to this desert.

It was their decades of hard work that prevented this desert from continuing to expand.

Deserts like moving dunes can move.

If it moves to a place where people have settled, it will be an unprecedented disaster.

"You are all heroes." Zhang Xingyang looked at each other seriously and said.

The middle-aged man felt warm in his heart, smiled and did not continue talking.

“What’s the local rainfall like every year?”

Without exchanging too many pleasantries, Zhang Xingyang directly asked about the local weather data.

Local weather stations, though, have more specific data.

However, the data on paper can't explain anything. Zhang Xingyang still wants to talk to the locals.

Because the weather station data is likely to be inaccurate.

"Although there was little rainfall in the past, we were still able to transport water back from reservoirs more than 100 kilometers away."

The middle-aged man looked at Zhang Xingyang with a sad face.

"The water in the reservoir has become less and less in the past few years. The water we transport back is only enough for human and animal use, and there is no way to plant trees at all."

To control sand, vegetation must be used to fix the sand.

Whether it's Haloxylon ammodendron, Suoluo, or Populus euphratica.

These can fix the constantly moving mobile sand dunes in place and become fixed sand dunes.

Once the sand dunes are fixed, it will be much easier to manage them.

To plant vegetation, it is absolutely impossible without water.

Even the Haloxylon ammodendron tree, which consumes very little water, requires a large amount of water when planted to ensure its survival rate.

"The survival rate of trees planted in previous years was still over 20%. Now that there is not so much water, even 5% is enough."

The middle-aged man looked at the pieces of Haloxylon ammodendron that had dried into dead branches in the distance and could be directly used as firewood when uprooted, and said helplessly.

It was also the first time that Zhang Xingyang intuitively felt the difficulty of planting trees to control desertification in the local area.

The survival rate of less than 5% means that even if they plant 10,000 trees, only three to four hundred may survive!

These few trees cannot fix even a sand dune, not to mention a small area of ​​desert.

As for the reason for the decrease in water volume in the reservoir, Zhang Xingyang can probably guess it.

In recent years, El Niño has been strengthening and temperatures have been rising.

As a result, the eastern region, which already has relatively heavy rainfall, received even greater rainfall, and many areas experienced unprecedented heavy rainstorms.

In the northwest, the temperature has become even lower, and a large amount of water vapor has turned into ice and snow and remained on the surface. Without a large amount of water vapor, precipitation has plummeted.

Places that used to receive 30-40 millimeters of precipitation per year may now receive less than 20 millimeters of precipitation per year.

This also resulted in the fact that there was insufficient water in the reservoir more than a hundred kilometers away, and they could no longer consume so much on tree planting.

We must ensure that humans have sufficient water.

"So if you have enough water, can you increase the survival rate of planted trees?"

Zhang Xingyang bent down, gently grabbed a dead Haloxylon ammodendron, and pulled it out of the sand with a little force.

After carefully observing its roots, there was no feeling of moisture at all.

Pinch the root of it hard and it will snap off like a match.

The middle-aged man was a little confused when he saw Zhang Xingyang's move, but he didn't ask: "If there is enough water, the survival rate of the saplings we planted can reach at least 30%."

The middle-aged people are still wondering whether the person suspected of being a big leader wants to connect a waterway to their local area.

"What if it rains within a few days of planting the saplings?"

Zhang Xingyang held the Haloxylon ammodendron in one hand and looked at the other party and asked.

"Then it depends on how much rain it will rain." The middle-aged man said after thinking carefully for a while.

"We have also encountered heavy rain before, and that time many of our mature trees were washed away."

In the Gobi desert area, because there is relatively little vegetation, the soil cannot store a large amount of water.

Once it rains heavily, a large amount of water can only form a mighty torrent on the ground.

This can be regarded as a strange scene in the desert, the Gobi mudslide.

Once formed, not to mention the newly planted small trees such as Haloxylon ammodendron and Trichoderma spp., even the Populus euphratica trees that have grown in the desert for hundreds of years can be directly washed away.

"If it's light rain, it's still useful."

"The survival rate of saplings can be increased by one to two percent at least."

The middle-aged man shared his experience gained from decades of tree planting and sand control.

Zhang Xingyang did not ask about the precipitation again, but raised the dead Haloxylon ammodendron tree in his hand: "I want to take this with me, can I?"

Although the middle-aged man still didn't understand why, he still nodded:

"Okay, it's useless for us to keep it anyway. It can only be used as firewood."

Zhang Xingyang walked to the jeep he came in and said before getting in:

"Be prepared, it won't be long before it rains what you want."

Then without making any further stops, we left the area where desert control people live.

A few hours later, hundreds of miles away, the artificial rainfall headquarters.

"Local meteorological conditions do not support the use of traditional artificial rainfall enhancement methods."

Generally speaking, artificial rainfall can only be successful when natural clouds have started to rain or are about to rain.

"Now let alone rainfall, there are not even two cumulonimbus clouds in the area."

Before Zhang Xingyang entered the tent, he heard everyone arguing fiercely.

"In three days, the local area will have conditions for artificial rainfall."

Zhang Xingyang entered the tent and brought everyone some exciting news.

Everyone who was arguing fiercely suddenly became surprised.

"Judging from the recent weather cloud map, there are no clouds around that can meet the conditions?"

Someone said very puzzledly.

After a long period of development, domestic meteorological satellites have also been able to monitor global meteorological changes.

They have a computer on hand that can receive weather data in real time.

“It doesn’t happen now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.”

Zhang Xingyang said nonchalantly:

"In three days, the clouds you need will appear locally. As for where the clouds come from, don't ask so much."

Except for a very small number of people, no one else is qualified to know the origin of the cloud.

In just a few months, Zhang Xingyang has led the research team to further develop microwave meteorological technology.

The energy level is limited by the satellite microwave transmission power and the number of satellites, and it is difficult to increase it by several orders of magnitude in a short time.

To the extent that it can directly affect a huge energy body like typhoon.

However, the control accuracy has been greatly improved.

In the first previous experiment, a cumulonimbus cloud was successfully created above the South China Sea and successfully transported to Sanya.

The cloud error is no more than 300 meters.

The precipitation error is three hundred meters, which is already a very alarming data.

Before this, even with artificial rainfall enhancement, it was difficult to control the precipitation range error within a few hundred meters.

Generally speaking, a gap of one or two kilometers is very common.

The great success of the first experiment greatly encouraged everyone involved in microwave meteorology research and development.

The previous Typhoon project was a huge success.

But it's like nuclear energy was originally developed for nuclear bombs, but it is nuclear power plants that benefit most people.

Everyone still hopes that this very advanced technology can be used to benefit the public.

But now, they have achieved something that could only be achieved in myths, legends and fairy novels in the past.

Human beings control the wind and rain themselves!

The precipitation requirements in the Gobi Desert are still relatively high.

The rain can't be too heavy, nor can it be too light.

It's too big and will directly destroy the trees they planted before.

If it is too small, it will be difficult to reach the amount of water the tree needs to survive.

A suitable range must be reached to allow newly planted trees to survive.

"Is three days enough for them to plant a new batch of saplings?"

Zhang Xingyang asked a young man in the tent.

"This time is quite suitable."

The young man replied without thinking: "Three days are just enough for the newly planted saplings to be alive. If the time is too long, the saplings planted at the beginning may have died."

The survival time of saplings planted locally is basically calculated in days.

If it cannot survive the first half month, there is no need to continue watering.

Zhang Xingyang nodded and said nothing more.

He went straight into a tent that no one else was allowed to enter.

Begin to direct microwave meteorological researchers thousands of kilometers away.

"The local situation is more complicated, and our initial ideas are not suitable."

Zhang Xingyang said while thinking about what he had seen in the past few days:

"The cumulonimbus it attracts should not be too big or too small."

"First let it rain heavily in the reservoir area. If the effect is good, then let it rain again on the edge of the desert."

Zhang Xingyang did not provide much guidance to researchers thousands of miles away.

It just speaks to local needs.

"Then we can pull a cumulonimbus cloud from China."

A few minutes later, after careful investigation, the other person in the video said.

"Central China is about to enter the flood season. It won't matter if we don't buy it at this time."

"After entering the flood season, it may continue to pull the local cloud system."

This approach actually only slightly reduces local precipitation.

Because the source of the flood season is mainly the intersection of the cold current from the northwest and the warm current from the southeast coast.

They are still far away from affecting these two powerful cold and warm currents.

"You decide for yourself which cloud groups will be pulled. I will watch it locally."

Zhang Xingyang said directly.

That night, the power satellite in space that was originally facing the sun began to adjust its posture significantly.

Start aiming your microwave emission angle at Central China.

Start to create a sufficient temperature difference at the height of the cloud.

A high enough temperature difference creates an extremely strong wind.

Strong winds pushed several huge cloud groups towards the northwest.

By the way, many areas in central China also experienced strong winds reaching level seven or above.

It brings some long-lost coolness to Central China, which is suffering from high temperatures, like a steamer.

Many families who originally did not turn on the air conditioner due to power saving, or did not have air conditioning at home, instantly felt the coolness blowing from the window and spent a more comfortable night.

Clouds move very fast, sometimes reaching thousands of kilometers in a day and night.

However, the speed of microwave meteorological traction is slightly slower.

This is also to avoid causing unnecessary trouble below the clouds.

Not all of the clouds are destined to reach desert areas.

In the Loess Plateau area, two groups of cumulonimbus clouds stayed.

They will bring a hearty heavy rain to a place that has not had any precipitation for nearly two months.

In the end, only a medium-sized cumulonimbus cloud reached the northwest desert area.

"I wonder if this cumulonimbus cloud can meet your requirements."

Two days later, in the morning, Zhang Xingyang pointed at the dark clouds in the sky and said.

"We just tested it. The temperature of this cloud is above zero. Where did it come from?"

The young man looked at the dark clouds in the sky with some confusion and said.

Most of the local clouds have temperatures below freezing.

Because it is difficult for them to store heat locally, the temperature of clouds in the sky is below zero.

In this case, most of the precipitation produced is hail.

This cloud is a rare warm cloud in the area, with an internal temperature above zero.

"Just tell me if it can be used."

Zhang Xingyang did not answer the other party's question, but continued to press.

"It works," the young man said after a moment of sluggishness.

"But we don't have much experience with warm clouds that increase rainfall."

"The success rate of increasing rainfall may be relatively low."

To warm clouds and increase rain, it is necessary to spread salt powder, urea and other hygroscopic agents in the clouds.

Cold clouds increase rain by sowing dry ice, silver iodide and other catalysts in the clouds. (End of chapter)