China plans to put four more Fengyun-3 meteorological satellites into orbit between 2018 and 2021, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) announced Wednesday.
The Fengyun-3, including a morning orbit satellite, an afternoon orbit satellite and a precipitation measuring satellite, will form a network of low-orbit meteorological satellites to enhance the monitoring of atmospheric humidity and temperature, greenhouse gases, wind fields and precipitation, said Zhou Xubin with the CASTC.
The launch of the Fengyun-3 satellites will help shorten the interval between world weather forecast updates from the current six hours to four hours, and increase the timeliness of weather disaster monitoring and forecast accuracy, said Zhou.
China launched the Fengyun-3D at 2:35 a.m. Beijing Time Wednesday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province.
Fengyun satellites are a series of remote-sensing meteorological satellites developed by China. Fengyun-1 and Fengyun-3 are polar orbiting weather satellites, while Fengyun-2 and Fengyun-4 operate in geostationary orbit.
