The first of four weather satellites to be launched before 2013 could go into orbit next year, a weather official said Sunday.

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 kilometers 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 November 21, 2005)