Chinese meteorologists' ability to forecast typhoons will be greatly enhanced thanks to a new polar orbit satellite, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said yesterday.

Formally handed over to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) yesterday, the FY-3A is one of the world's most advanced satellites of its kind, the CNSA said.

It provides images of a spatial resolution of 250 m, up from 1.1 km by China's other weather forecasting satellites, Yang Jun, director of the National Satellite Meteorological Center under the CMA, said.

"The high resolution can help show the fine structure of the cloud system of typhoons and rainstorms, so we can determine the location of typhoons center accurately," he said.

The microwave payloads on the satellite can also tell where a typhoon will generate heavy rainfall and how much, he said.

"Previously, we could see only the shape of a typhoon, but there was no way to know where it would rain," he said.

With onboard an infrared atmospheric sounder and Earth radiation measurement equipment, the FY-3A can enhance the precision of forecasting a typhoon's intensity and movement, he said.

Studies by the administration have shown that the number and intensity of typhoons landing China in recent years have increased due to global warming, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.

In the past 50 years, most typhoons landed in coastal areas of Southeast China, a populous region generating an important part of the country's GDP, the report said.

Ren Fuming, a typhoon expert with the National Climate Center, said China's ability to forecast where typhoons will land is currently not very accurate, and it is almost impossible to predict tornados or extraordinarily heavy rain incurred by typhoons.

The FY-3A is the most advanced Earth-observing satellite for civil use in China, with most of its 11 payloads being used for the first time, Sun Laiyan, chief of the CNSA, said yesterday.

It performs twice-daily observations and can help monitor not only typhoons and rainstorms, but other things such as sandstorms, fog, drought, flood and fire.

It makes China the second country after the United States to be able to monitor the ozone level around the world, Shen Xiaonong, deputy chief of the CMA, said.

(China Daily January 13, 2009)