Predicting tsunamis – with a joint Italian-Chinese space mission

The former president of the Italian Space Agency says a joint satellite mission with China could help predict major events such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

A second satellite in the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) mission was successfully launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in mid-June. It's a joint project between China and Italy to study electromagnetic fields and waves across the earth.

Roberto Battiston is the former head of the Italian Space Agency and Professor of Experimental Physics at Trento University. He told CGTN that the launch was the culmination of years of hard work.

"The launch is a moment when you feel a mixed feeling of relief – it's gone and there's nothing you can do to fix it – and satisfaction because you know you did a very good job in preparation for that," he said.

CSES-1, also known as Zhangheng 1, was launched in 2018 and has already provided data that could help predict earthquakes and other extreme events such as tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

"Both China and Italy have a tradition of having areas which are very affected by earthquakes," said Battiston. "If we find even a small advantage of mitigating these phenomena, if we find the capability of anticipating them just by some percentage, we would be very proud, and I think it would benefit the world."

The CSES-2 has two Italian instruments on board, a new high energy particle detector and an electric field detector.

Francesco Maria Follega, a physics researcher on the program, says the instruments are now being modified for peak performance in orbit.

"Because we optimize the instrument on the ground, we do a lot of tests, but we don't know exactly how they will perform in space, so there is this adjustment phase called commissioning," he told CGTN.

Coralie Neubüser is another researcher on the program from the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications. She explained that the two satellites will work in tandem.

"With the second satellite, it allows us to do the correlation study between the signals that we measure and also the redundancy between the two observations," she said.

The China National Space Administration says the second satellite launch of the program highlights the strengthening relationship between China and Italy, both scientifically and culturally.

Battiston believes it's science diplomacy at its best.

"Working with the Chinese people is really a new dimension because of their speciality, their history, their background."