Description : FY-4 - FengYun-4
Geostationary Meteorological Satellite Series
11 DEC 2016
- FY-4 is CMA’s (China Meteorological Administration) second-generation three-axis stabilized, geostationary meteorological satellite series, under development by CAST (China Academy of Space Technology). Two variants of spacecraft of the FY-4 (FenYun means "winds and clouds or storm" in Chinese) program are in planning, with one carrying optical sensors and the other carrying microwave sensors.
Compared to the current FY-2 geostationary meteorological satellite series, the performance of the FY-4 series has been considerably improved in terms of data amount, network transmission bandwidth, product type and quantity and archiving data and applications. The new generation FY-4 satellites are designed with an enhanced imagery scanning capability, desirable for monitoring small and medium scale weather systems. FY-4 is enabled with vertical atmospheric sounding and microwave detection capabilities to address 3D remote sensing at geostationary altitudes. The new FY-4 series is also enabled with solar observations for EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) and X-ray monitoring, in a bid to enhance China’s space weather watch and warning capability. 1)