China plans to launch the first satellite of the Fengyun-4 (FY-4) series, the country's second-generation geostationary meteorological satellites, around 2013, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

The FY-4 project has entered the proposal stage, revealed the first coordination meeting of the FY-4 project on Friday.

The FY-4 project has entered the proposal stage, revealed the first coordination meeting of the FY-4 project on October 10, 2008.

After listening to proposals of five major systems of the project at the meeting, leading scientists and engineers believed the FY-4 could be "paralleled to world's most advanced geostationary meteorological satellites" when it was launched.

"It can meet extensive needs in fields such as weather, climate, environment and natural disasters monitoring and forecast."

CMA Vice Director Yu Rucong said FY-4, a successor of FY-2 series, would further boost monitoring capabilities, such as the monitoring of cloud system and atmospherical temperature and humidity.

China will launch another 22 meteorological satellites by 2020, including four more from the FY-2 series, 12 from the FY-3 series and six from FY-4 series

Sun Laiyan, vice director of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, told the meeting that FY series had become a model of remote sensing satellite operations and civilian satellite services.

(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2008)