Can China’s satellite lidar detect and track deep-diving submarines?

Chinese scientists are working on a laser satellite device they hope will be able to detect from space the location of submerged submarines located as deep as 1,600 feet below the ocean surface. It is the latest addition to China’s expanding deep-sea surveillance program, and aside from targeting submarines — most submerged submarines operate at a depth of less than 1,600 feet — it also could collect data on the world’s oceans. Project Guanlan, meaning “watching the big waves,” officially was launched in May at the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology in Qingdao, China, southeast of Beijing. It aims to strengthen China’s surveillance activities in the world’s oceans, according to the laboratory’s Website.