China News Service, Shanghai, Oct. 10 (Reporter Ruan Yulin) lasted 83 days, a total voyage of more than 20,000 nautical miles, China's 8th Arctic scientific expedition team returned to Shanghai China Base dock by "Snow Dragon" polar research ship on the 10th. The expedition crossed the Central Arctic Passage and the Northwest Passage for the first time, realizing China's first scientific expedition around the Arctic Ocean and achieving a number of breakthrough achievements.

-- China launched its first circumpolar Arctic Ocean expedition. On July 20, 2017, China's 8th Arctic scientific expedition set off from Shanghai by "Snow Dragon", covering a total voyage of more than 20,000 nautical miles. It completed China's first scientific research around the Arctic Ocean and carried out surveys on the basic Marine environment, sea ice, biodiversity, Marine deoxygenation and acidification, artificial nuclides and Marine plastic waste. Qin Weijia, director of the Polar Exploration Office of the State Oceanic Administration of China, said that the expedition greatly expanded the regional scope and content of China's Arctic Marine environment operational survey, and made positive contributions to the construction of China's Arctic operational investigation system, Arctic environmental assessment and resource utilization, and frontier scientific research in the Arctic.

-- It crossed the Central Arctic shipping route for the first time and carried out a scientific survey in the high seas area of the Arctic Ocean. Qin Weijia said that China's 8th Arctic scientific expedition aboard the "Snow Dragon" carried out the first scientific survey along the Central Passage in the high seas area of the Arctic Ocean, and carried out operational surveys in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Canadian Basin, Northern Europe Sea and other waters, filling the gap in China's survey in the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay.

-- The first voyage to the Northwest Passage of the Arctic was carried out to strengthen international cooperation and carry out surveys of the Marine environment and submarine topography. During its maiden voyage through the Northwest Passage aboard the Snow Dragon, China's 8th Arctic scientific expedition completed 3,042 kilometers of submarine topography data collection, and completed a survey of the seabed topography of 1,400 square kilometers in the western slope area of Baffin Bay, filling the gap in China's survey in this area and accumulating first-hand information for China's commercial utilization of the Northwest Passage.

-- For the first time, Marine plastic waste, microplastics and artificial nuclides were monitored in the Arctic and subArctic regions.

Xu Ren, leader of China's 8th Arctic scientific expedition, told reporters in Shanghai on Wednesday that the Xuelong had successfully traversed the Central Arctic Route on a 1,700-nautical-mile voyage spanning 14 days from August 2 to August 16, 2017, Beijing time. From August 30 to September 6, it lasted 7 days, a voyage of 2,293 nautical miles, and the "Snow Dragon" successfully tried the Northwest Passage of the Arctic for the first time, overcoming navigation difficulties such as twists and turns in the channel, narrow navigable channels, complicated water depths, incomplete hydrological data, and dense floating ice in the channel.

Xu Ren said, "Snow Long" along the way to overcome the high latitude sea difficult to obtain ice information in time, poor visibility in foggy days, ice conditions change quickly, encountered icebergs and many other adverse factors, according to the dynamic ice conditions, many times to optimize the route, strengthen the low visibility under the full lookout, manual operation of the rudder, etc., to ensure the navigation direction and speed, formulate various preventive measures, To ensure the smooth passage of the Central Passage and the Northwest Passage, it has accumulated navigation technology and experience under the complex ice environment of the Arctic passage, obtained first-hand information of the Arctic passage, and successfully explored the development and utilization of the Arctic passage.

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