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By Wei Long Beijing - July 25, 2000 - Half a month after Fengyun-2B (FY-2B) returned its first image in visible light, China's newest meteorological satellite successfully transmitted the first infrared and water vapour images on Thursday (July 20), Wenhui Daily reported. After receiving commands from the National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC) at 10:04 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday (0204 UTC), FY-2B activated the infrared and water vapour sensing channels. Twenty-five minutes later a ground station received the first full disk IR and WV images. Australia stands out prominently in the IR "first light" image. Tropical Storm Tembin, near Japan, is seen at the top right. Image resolution in IR and WV channels is about 5 km at the subsatellite point. A Changzheng-3 (Long March-3) rocket launched FY-2B on June 25 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province. The geostationary metsat reached the orbital slot at 105 deg E longitude over the Equator on July 3. Three days later FY-2B successfully transmitted its first full disk visual image. The main payload on FY-2B is the Visible and Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR), which operates in three channels in visible, infrared and water vapour wavebands. VISSR can obtain three separate full disk images of the Earth every 25 minutes. According to Zhan Lishan, a VISSR designer with the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics which is an institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the IR and WV channels record radiative information from the surface and cloud layers, and measure distribution of water vapour in the middle and upper atmosphere. The institute received a congratulatory message from NSMC for its significant contribution to the mission. Other functions of FY-2B include monitoring solar activities such as emission of x-ray and particle radiation; collecting and transmitting meteorological, oceanographic and hydrologic data; and broadcasting stretched digital images, low resolution cloud and WEFAX images, synoptic maps and processed products. NSMC, a scientific research and operational facility affiliated to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), receives, processes and distributes data to users. FY-2B will undergo further on-orbit checkout and trial operation until the end of this year. The metsat is expected to go into full operation on January 1, 2001.
DRAGONS IN SPACE
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