Exclusive: A new journey into space
DU Zhitao, DU Xiaoyong, JIANG Mingbo, SUN Jiao, ZHANG Zhibiao, WANG Yang
Meteorological satellite is an important national basic and strategic space system. Especially in recent years, environmental problems have become increasingly severe, natural disasters have occurred frequently, and modern wars have put forward higher requirements for meteorological satellites in terms of accurate measurement of cloud conditions, ocean waves, atmospheric temperature, pressure, wind speed and other parameters. Although the polar-orbiting weather satellite system of the United States has achieved continuous global all-weather coverage by integrating the respective polar-orbiting weather satellite systems of DOD, NOAA, and EUMET, NOAA has been exploring the transformation and development of meteorological satellites, and has carried out a variety of transformation explorations such as new generation of satellite architecture research, pilot procurement of commercial meteorological satellite data, and research on key technologies of meteorological small satellites. This article reviews these transformation explorations to provide reference for the development of China's meteorological satellites.