Physics and Weapons

Using Gravity to Detect Submarines

China has developed a new type of atomic gravimeter to work around the US ban on the export of US atomic gravimeters

Submarines not shown! Geoid undulations based on satellite gravimetry. Geoid undulation in false color, shaded relief and vertical exaggeration (10000 scale factor). Image credit: By International Centre for Global Earth Models (ICGEM) — http://icgem.gfz-potsdam.de/vis3d/longtime / Ince, E. S., Barthelmes, F., Reißland, S., Elger, K., Förste, C., Flechtner, F., Schuh, H. (2019): ICGEM — 15 years of successful collection and distribution of global gravitational models, associated services and future plans. — Earth System Science Data, 11, pp. 647–674,DOI: http://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-647-2019., CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81462823

Stories are emerging about new Chinese weapons research, and now we have one about using gravity to navigate submarines. It’s not new, but Chinese…