1. The Tsinghua DESS supercomputing team won the Gordon Bell Prize for the third time

On the afternoon of November 18 (U.S. time), the 2021 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell Prize, the highest international honor in the field of supercomputing application, was announced at a hybrid virtual/in person supercomputing (SC21) conference held in St. Louis, U.S. state Missouri. The Chinese supercomputing team won the honor for its achievement “Closing the Quantum Supremacy Gap: Achieving Real-Time Simulation of a Random Quantum Circuit Using a New Sunway Supercomputer” (SWQSIM).

SWQSIM developed by the Tsinghua DESS Supercomputing Team in collaboration with Zhejiang Lab, Tsinghua University, the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi and the Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Sciences, proposed an approximate optimal parallel segmentation and contraction method and hybrid precision algorithm of tensor network, which can be efficiently extended to tens of millions of cores in parallel and achieve 4.4 Eflops mixed-precision. It is the highest hybrid precision floating-point computing performance currently known in the global supercomputing field, with its overall performance significantly outpacing that of Google quantum computer "Sycamore". It is the third time that the Tsinghua team has been recognized with Gordon Bell Prize, the most prestigious international award in the field of supercomputing application.

Prize-winning project

2.Tsinghua University developed a new framework for intelligent mapping (iMap). Based on it, the 36-year long, 30 m resolution global daily “analysis ready” seamless data cubes and global seasonal land cover map data set were produced

On March 11, 2021, Professor Peng Gong’s Research Group published a new research paper titled “Production of global daily seamless data cubes and quantification of global land cover change from 1985 to 2020 - iMap World 1.0” in Remote Sensing of Environment, proposing a new generation of earth observation data and mapping solutions, and developing the world’s first set of 1985~2020 30m global daily seamless data cubes (SDC) and global annual and seasonal land cover mapping data set, which fills the gap in large-scale, high-frequency, seamless remote sensing and mapping.

The framework for seamless data cube construction and global land cover mapping.

3. Three Research Achievements of DESS, Tsinghua are selected into National “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” Scientific and Technological Innovation Achievement Exhibition

On October 21, 2021, the National “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” Scientific and Technological Innovation Achievement Exhibition was held in the Beijing Exhibition Center. Three research achievements of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University by the research groups by Prof. Zhang Qiang, Prof. Fu Haoheng and A/Prof. Liu Li were presented in the exhibition. Themed “Innovation-Driven Development Towards a Science and Technology Power”, the Achievement Exhibition highlighted the major scientific and technological achievements made by China since the in-depth implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy and building an innovation-driven country.

4.SEDES, an intelligent forecasting system of seasonal precipitation developed by DESS, Tsinghua University, has a good flood forecasting effect

Professor Luo Yong’ Research Team from the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University, in collaboration with experts from such institutions as the National Climate Center, has successfully developed SEDES (SEasonal DEep-learning System), an intelligent forecasting system of seasonal precipitation based on deep learning. The SEDES forecasting system is based on the concept that circulation is the carrier of the weather, draws on the working principle of cruise missiles, adopts convolutional neural network, attention mechanism and migration learning methods, and makes downscaling forecasting of seasonal precipitation in China through the large-scale circulation in the same period predicted and corrected by a dynamic model. The forecast results of precipitation anomaly percentage of the system were applied in the national flood forecast consultations in flood seasons of 2020 and 2021, achieving PS scores of 81.2 and 74.6, respectively. The good forecast application effect provides relevant departments with a scientific basis for flood control and drought relief decision-making.

In addition, the methods of sensitivity to occlusion, input optimization and activation/saliency maps prove that the model can not only be used to analyze the sources of precipitation forecasting errors of dynamic models, but also generate the key circulation system configurations corresponding to the main modes and individual cases of seasonal precipitation anomalies in China. This improves the physical interpretability of the deep learning model and partially solves the problem of artificial intelligence methods being "black boxes".

5. One Party Branch and Three Party Members of Department of Earth System Science Won the "July 1st" Commendation of Tsinghua University

On June 28, Tsinghua University’s Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China and the Commendation Conference was held at the New Tsinghua Academy. At the conference, the Class 2018 Party Branch of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS) was awarded the honor "Advanced Party Organization (Party Branch) of Tsinghua University", Comrade Zhang Qiang, member of the General Party Branch and Deputy Dean of the Department, and Postgraduate Comrade Yue Siyu, were awarded the title of "Outstanding Communist Party Member of Tsinghua University". Comrade Ren Zhehao, a postgraduate student, was awarded the title of "Outstanding Party Building and Political Worker (Party Branch Secretary) of Tsinghua University". Comrade Xia Wenwen, Secretary of Class 2018 Party Branch of the Graduate Union of DESS, delivered a speech as the representative of Advanced Party Organizations (Party Branches).

Group photo of Xia Wenwen (third from left), Ren Zhehao (second from right) and other members from DESS.

6.Five professors of DESS, Tsinghua University are on Clarivate’s list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021

On November 16, Clarivate published the list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021, on which Guan Dabo, Liu Zhu, Tong Dan, Yang Kun and Zhang Qiang from the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University were listed, of whom Prof. Zhang Qiang was rated as a highly cited researcher in two fields.

The list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021 was developed on the basis of highly cited papers published from January 2010 to December 2020 in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences, and cross-field categories.

7. Li Wei's Research Group of DESS, Tsinghua University has made important progress in forest disturbance and bioenergy crop

To explore the impact of forest disturbance on global carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation, Associate Professor Li Wei's Research Group of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University addressed forest degradation caused by tropical forest fragmentation, and by using high-resolution remote sensing data, realized the quantitative analysis of forest edge degradation degree in Africa, and revealed the direct and indirect mechanism of fire on forest edge degradation. The achievement was published in Nature Geosciences on July 5 in a paper titled “Fire enhances forest degradation within forest edge zones in Africa”. Meanwhile, centering on the biophysical effects of widespread bioenergy crop cultivation, the Research Group has conducted simulation research by using an earth system model including detailed bioenergy crop physiological and ecological management processes independently developed, finding that global air temperature decreases by 0.03~0.08 °C induced by biophysical effects of widespread bioenergy crop cultivation, but with strong regional contrasts and interannual variability. The achievement was published in Nature Communications on December 13 in a paper titled “Global cooling induced by biophysical effects of bioenergy crop cultivation”.

Schematic diagram of forest edge effect and its forest degradation mechanism.

8. The “2021 China report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: seizing the window of opportunity” is released in Beijing

On November 8, the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University spearheaded the release of the second “China report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change (2021)”. The report, co-authored by 25 renowned institutions and 88 authors at home and abroad, features a typical multidisciplinary research achievement, and is also the only annual report comprehensively presenting the impact on the health of Chinese residents by climate change and coping measures. Since its first release in 2020, the countdown report has drawn extensive attention from media, becoming a brand for comprehensively reviewing the connection between climate change and people’s health in China.

Conference site

9. Zhang Qiang's Research Group of DESS, Tsinghua University makes important progress in the exploration of pathways and drivers of air quality improvement in China

Professor Zhang Qiang's Research Group, with a focus on key drivers of air quality change in China, has quantitatively analyzed the impact of eight factors on PM_2.5 pollution and mortality risk in four aspects: social and economic development, energy and environmental policy, change of meteorological conditions and vulnerability of people. This achievement was published in the journal Nature Geoscience on July 26th in a paper titled "Drivers of PM2.5 air pollution deaths in China 2002–2017". Professor Zhang Qiang's Research Group cooperated with Academician He Kebin's Research Group of the School of Environment to quantitatively reveal the pathways of continuous improvement of air quality in China and key areas from 2015 to 2060 under the goal of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking, and pointed out the decisive role of achieving the goal of carbon neutrality in the fundamental improvement of air quality in China in the future. The achievement was published online in National Science Review on April 29 in a paper titled “Pathways of China's PM_2.5 air quality 2015–2060 in the context of carbon neutrality”.

Estimates of future CO₂ emissions and PM2.5 exposure under different mitigation pathways in (A) 2030 and (B) 2060.

10. A Speech by Tan Chang, Doctoral Candidate of the Department of Earth System Science: Make Unremitting Endeavors to Pursue New Dreams

On September 6, Tan Chang, a direct-track doctoral student of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University, addressed the inauguration ceremony of 2021 Graduate Students as a new student representative. In her speech titled “Make Unremitting Endeavors to Pursue New Dreams”, she started with an introduction about her earliest connection with Tsinghua University and talked about her pursuit and future plan.