On the morning of December 27, the Gansu Aerospace Meteorological Center, a joint project of the China Meteorological Administration, the People's Government of Gansu Province and the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, was officially launched at the Gansu Meteorological Bureau. This is the first space meteorological center in China.

Weather is one of the key conditions affecting the successful launch and safe landing of satellites. Having an aerospace meteorological center at the Gansu Meteorological Bureau can take full advantage of the Bureau's existing facilities and technology for the launch and recycle of satellites.

In recent years, the Gansu Meteorological Bureau consecutively constructed a high-resolution remote sensing ground receiving system, a new weather radar, an automatic surface-based observation network, a precise high-altitude probing system, a high-performance computer system at a calculation speed of 100 billion times per second and an aerospace meteorological protection system.

Using the new facilities, the Gansu Meteorological Bureau was able to conduct closer observation through its observation network, refine its weather forecast for cosmodromes and provide support services for a number of launches. In particular, at the launch of Shenzhou V, the bureau made timely and accurate weather forecasts while at the same time ensured availability of meteorological information channels and rapid transfer of service information.

The Jiuquan Space Meteorological Base was built together with the Gansu Space Meteorological Center, which will fully utilize the meteorological data provided by the base for spacecraft launch and recovery services.

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is the first modern manned spacecraft launch center in China. The successful launch of spacecrafts requires a great variety of meteorological information, such as information on wind, thunder, precipitation, visibility and temperature. A space meteorological station serves the meteorological needs of spacecraft launch and recovery.

(Chinanews December 29, 2004)