Beijing (VNA) - China is likely to launch a new polar-orbiting meteorological satellite this autumn to improve its global weather monitoring capacity, China ’s Xinhua news agency reported.

The satellite, named Fengyun-3 (FY-3), is China 's second generation of solar-synchronous weather satellite.

The FY-3, equipped with 11 monitoring devices, weighed more than 2.4 tonnes, triple with FY-1 satellite, Gao Huoshan, general director of the FY-3 research team, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

He said the satellite would be able to detect meteorological changes more accurately and send back high-resolution images.

Once launched, the FY-3 would do a complete polar orbit every 102 minutes. It can observe global meteorological and environmental changes around the clock and will be used for weather forecasting and disaster prevention, Xinhua said.-Enditem