China to launch 13 weather satellites in next decade

China will launch 13 weather satellites from 2011 to 2020, said Yang Jun, director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center under the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), in an interview on March 20.
These satellites will see overall improvements in spatial resolution, detection precision and three-dimensional atmospheric detection capabilities. They will also be able to observe greenhouse gases, lightning and solar activity among other things.
At an open house for the CMA, Yang said that the Fengyun-series satellites, which currently include the Fengyun-2 and Fengyun-3, will gradually be expanded to include new editions, such as the Fengyun-4, precipitation measurement radar satellites and geostationary satellites.
Yang said China's weather satellites are presently only capable of simply taking pictures of the atmosphere of Earth from space and providing two-dimensional images. With future satellite upgrades and technological innovations, they will be able to conduct "CT scans" of the atmosphere, which will enable the satellites to monitor lightning, greenhouse gasses as well as to assess the thickness, temperature and humidity of typhoons. This will improve the accuracy of China's weather forecasts, and its ability to deal with climate change will be strengthened accordingly.
China has launched 11 weather satellites so far, of which six are still working. Two geostationary weather satellites form an observation group and provide in-orbit backup to each other. Polar-orbiting weather satellites have been upgraded and divided into two orbiting groups, namely the morning and afternoon orbiting groups. China ranks among the few countries in the world that operate both geostationary and polar-orbiting meteorological satellites, and its Fengyun-series satellites have become an important component of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
Yang said that China plans to invest nearly 20 billion yuan in weather satellites in the coming decade. Although it still lags behind the United States and other developed countries in the number of and core technologies for weather satellites, China is expected to catch up with these developed countries or even surpass them in certain fields over the next 10 years.
By Wang Hanlu, People's Daily Online
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