7 weather satellites set to launch by 2015

BEIJING - China will launch seven meteorological satellites in the next five years and double its investment in meteorological infrastructure, according to Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

That almost doubles the number launched during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period, he said on the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC) session on Friday.

According to Zheng, the accuracy of the new meteorological satellites will be greatly improved as the observation frequency will increase from once every half an hour to once every five minutes and the ground resolution will be improved from 1 kilometer to between 100 and 200 meters.