千里眼计划 (qiānlǐyǎn jìhuà): Clairvoyance project

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Sunday that it is launching a "clairvoyance project" to monitor and control air pollution in key areas.

According to the ministry, the project will use satellite remote sensing to identify hot spot areas with high concentrations of air pollution.

According to the ministry, regions covered by the network will be divided into grid units measuring 3 by 3 kilometers, and the units with relatively high density of PM 2.5 will be listed as key areas to watch. With technologies including remote sensing, supervisors will be able to rapidly locate the air pollution source once the PM2.5 density in these key grid hot spots increases, which will help curb air pollution quickly and effectively.

The grid network is to cover the major air pollution regions. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas will be incorporated into this network by October, and in the future the network will further cover all the air pollution prevention and control key regions including Fenhe and Weihe river plains as well as the Yangtze River delta region.