Advancement of Chinese Meteorological Feng-Yun (FY) and Oceanic Hai-Yang (HY) Satellite Remote Sensing

During recent decades, China has successfully launched several programs of satellite-borne remote sensing, including the meteorological Feng-Yun (FY, “wind cloud”) series and oceanic Hai-Yang (HY, “ocean”) series, in broad spectra, i.e., optical, infrared, and microwave. Since the initiation from the early 1970s, a total of nine meteorological satellites, FY series, including five polar-orbit satellites and four geostationary satellites, have been successfully launched. Chinese FY has become an important component of global meteorological satellites systems and continues to maintain long-term stable operations of both polar and stationary meteorological satellites. Later in 2002, China´s HY-1, an oceanic color satellite, was launched and is now in good operation. The successive HY-2 and HY-3 of the HY series, including microwave sensors, are also on schedule. Relevant basic research, application, and operational service of satellite-borne remote sensing and Earth observation have been well implemented. In this paper, a brief overview of Chinese satellite-borne remote sensing, FY and HY series, is presented, and some progress is introduced.