China’s Fengyun meteorological satellites, developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), have been deployed in coordinated multi-satellite observations to track Typhoon Dolphin, providing critical data support for the country’s meteorological authorities.
The Fengyun-4C and Fengyun-4B satellites operated in tandem to continuously monitor the typhoon’s evolution from its formation over the open ocean to its approach toward China’s coast.
Positioned at 133 degrees east longitude, Fengyun-4C is currently the world’s most powerful single geostationary satellite for comprehensive atmospheric sounding. Facing the typhoon-prone waters of the northwestern Pacific, it offers wide-coverage, high-frequency and continuous observation capabilities, according to the SAST.
Equipped with advanced payloads, including a multi-channel scanning imaging radiometer and a lightning mapping imager, this satellite captured real-time information on cloud structures, severe convection activities and lightning variations, enabling timely detection of key signatures during the typhoon’s rapid intensification phases.
As the typhoon edged closer to China’s coastal areas, Fengyun-4B, positioned at 105 degrees east longitude, adopted a more favorable viewing angle to focus on offshore waters, conducting high-frequency, high-resolution monitoring at one-minute intervals and 250-meter resolution for the typhoon, the associated mesoscale and smaller weather systems, the SAST noted.
Fengyun-3 low-orbit meteorological satellites have also been mobilized, leveraging their multi-orbit and multi-payload synergies to probe the typhoon’s internal structure from different angles and at different times.
Equipped with microwave imagers, microwave temperature and humidity sounders, and precipitation measurement radars, these satellites can penetrate cloud and rain layers to retrieve data on internal temperature and humidity profiles, moisture distribution and precipitation dynamics, enabling a comprehensive characterization of the typhoon from its outer bands to its inner core, the SAST revealed.
