At 3:28 a.m. on September 27, China successfully launched the FENYUN-3H meteorological satellite (FY-3H) using a Long March 4C carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu. As a new member of the FY polar-orbiting meteorological satellite "afternoon satellite" family, FY-3H payload configuration and performance indicators have reached international sophisticated levels. It will take over the in-orbit operations of the FY-3D, which has been in service for nearly 8 years. While ensuring the core operations of global imaging and atmospheric vertical sounding for polar-orbiting meteorological satellites, it will enhance the data acquisition capability for multiple spheres of the Earth system and further enhance the global service capability.

FY-3H was launched. Photoed by REN Changsheng

Dr. CAO Xiaozhong, Chief Commander of the FY Meteorological Satellite Project and Deputy Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), stated that in recent years, China has continuously enhanced the influence of its FY meteorological satellites, becoming a role model for serving global sustainable development. After the successful launch of FY-3H, it will continue to give play to the overall advantages of China's four near-earth orbit observation systems for FY meteorological satellites, further ramp up the capabilities for refined observation of the global atmosphere and the Earth system, and better leverage the application benefits of meteorological satellites in various fields.

WANG Jingsong, Director General of the National Satellite Meteorological Centre (National Space Weather Monitoring and Warning Centre) of CMA and Chief Designer of the FY Meteorological Satellite Project, stated that China adopts a multi-satellite network for near-earth orbit meteorological satellites to obtain  observational data completely distributed at the global spatial and temporal and scale. FY-3H will undertake the monitoring mission of "afternoon satellite"  and conduct networked observations with the in-orbit FY-3F, FY-3E, and FY-3G. This will provide solid data product support for core meteorological operations with a more stable and higher-quality operational status.

FY-3H is equipped with 9 effective payloads which are of international advanced levels in terms of configuration and performance indicators. These payloads include a newly developed Greenhouse-gases Absorption Spectrometer II (GAS-II), an upgraded  Wide-field Auroral Imager-II (WAI-II), as well as 7 inherited payloads such as Medium Resolution Spectral Imager-III (MERSI-III), and Hyperspectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounder-II (HIRAS-II). 

GAS-II is the first in the world to achieve global greenhouse gas monitoring with a 100-kilometer swath width.Through refined sounding of atmospheric absorption lines across 4 spectral bands from near-infrared to shortwave infrared, it can obtain column concentration data of major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, enabling high-precision global greenhouse gas detection and strongly underpin global climate change monitoring and the achievement of "dual carbon" goals. 

WAI-II is capable of wide-field Auroral Imaging and sounding of the concentration of precipitating particles. With a spectral coverage of 140nm to 180nm, it can provide real-time forecasts of aurora intensity and extent, as well as current reports on precipitating particles in polar regions, enabling forecasts of magnetic storms, magnetospheric substorms, and polar ionospheric weather.

After FY-3H is put into operation, it will deliver 70 products across 6 major categories, including cloud radiation, sea surface, land surface, atmospheric parameters, atmospheric composition, and space weather. These products will support core meteorological operations, cater to the needs of space weather forecasting and support services, and enhance China's capabilities in global numerical weather prediction (NWP), global climate change monitoring, ecological environment monitoring, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

So far, China has launched 22 FY meteorological satellites, with 9 currently in orbit. These satellites continuously deliver data products and services to 133 countries and territories around the world, propping up China's solution for the United Nations' Early Warnings for All.

Editor:LIU Shuqiao