China Launches ‘Fengyun-4-03’ Satellite, Marking Major Leap in Weather Forecasting Capability

Beijing — China on Saturday successfully launched a new meteorological satellite into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

The satellite, named Fengyun-4-03, was launched at 12:07 a.m. Beijing time aboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket. Chinese authorities confirmed that the satellite successfully entered its designated orbit shortly after launch.

With this mission, a new member has been added to China’s Fengyun (FY) meteorological satellite series, which now comprises more than 20 satellites. Among them, Fengyun-4-03 is regarded as the most capable to date in terms of comprehensive observation performance.

According to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), the satellite is equipped with four Earth-observation instruments and two solar-observation instruments. Significant improvements have been made in observation capability, measurement indicators, and data transmission efficiency.

An advanced geostationary radiation imager onboard the satellite can now scan the entire Earth’s surface every five minutes, three times faster than the previous 15-minute cycle. The instrument is also highly sensitive, capable of detecting atmospheric temperature changes as small as one-fiftieth of a degree Celsius, even from thousands of kilometers away.

Another key payload, the geostationary interferometric infrared sounder, has seen its spatial resolution improved from 12 kilometers to 8 kilometers. This enhancement enables the satellite to map temperature and humidity conditions across China within one hour.

The satellite is also fitted with a lightning imager capable of capturing 500 frames per second and identifying lightning events within a data stream of 30 gigabits per second. SAST likened this capability to screening 30 high-quality films per second and instantly extracting frames that contain lightning-related signals.

SAST noted that the Fengyun-4 series has progressively expanded China’s meteorological observation capabilities. China previously launched Fengyun-4-01 in December 2016 and Fengyun-4-02 in June 2021.

The newly launched Fengyun-4-03 satellite supports inter-satellite coordination, high-speed data transmission, and broadcast services, allowing all three Fengyun-4 satellites to work together as an integrated and coordinated observation network.

According to SAST, this strengthened network is expected to significantly enhance China’s capabilities in weather forecasting, meteorological disaster mitigation, space weather monitoring, and ecological and environmental observation.