China to launch four new weather satellites before 2021

China plans to put four more Fengyun 3 meteorological satellites into orbit between 2018 and 2021, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp announced on Wednesday. The satellites will form a network in low-orbit to enhance the monitoring of atmospheric humidity and temperature, greenhouse gases, wind and precipitation, said Zhou Xubin of CASTC.

The devices 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 forecasting accuracy, Zhou said.

China launched a Fengyun 3D at 2:35 am on Wednesday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China’s Shanxi province. A Long March 4C rocket carried it into space, where it entered orbit.

The Fengyun satellites are part of a series of remotesensing meteorological satellites developed by China. Fengyun 1 and Fengyun 3 are polar orbiters, while Fengyun 2 and Fengyun 4 operate in