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Four satellites to 'improve forecasting'
By Liang Chao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-21 05:47
The first of four weather satellites to be launched before 2013 could go into
orbit next year, a weather official said yesterday.
Zhang Wenjian, director of the department of observation and
telecommunications under the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said:
"Belonging to the Fengyun-2 (FY-2) series of weather satellites, they will form
an observation system over the skies of China to watch any possible weather
changes that may affect the country.
"Such a constellation of satellites will lay a foundation for us to improve
weather forecasting throughout China and related meteorological services to many
key sectors of the national economy."
The system, he says, will give weather watchers a wider view, sending data
every 15 minutes.
His remarks were made yesterday in Beijing at an appraisal of the ground
receiving and application system of the FY-2C meteorological satellite.
FY-2C, the first synchronous meteorological satellite, was independently
developed and manufactured by China and launched last October with an expected
lifetime of at least three years.
The ground segment system of the FY-2C has met all the designed requirements,
experts said.
The system has, since early this year, been put into professional operation
for weather forecasting, providing data updates every 30 minutes.
Information provided by the system is now available for Chinese and foreign
researchers in the fields of meteorology, water resources, civil aviation,
agriculture and oceanography.
The new satellites will improve CMA's short- and medium-term forecasting
times from zero to six hours and from three to seven days respectively, Zhang
said.
"The satellites will also watch for weather changes at all the venues for the
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," he added.
Staying in synchronous orbit, the FY-2C satellite gazes at the earth from
36,000 kilometres above the Asia-Pacific region.
The satellite helps track small scale, but potentially disastrous, climate
changes, such as hailstorms, which can develop over just a few hours.
Since 1988, China has launched seven weather satellites including four in
polar orbits and three in earth synchronous orbits. Two of the craft are still
operating.
(China Daily 11/21/2005 page3)
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