China is expected to launch a meteorological satellite into orbit Wednesday, the first such pair of eyes the country plans to put in the skies to observe the 2008 Olympic Games, officials said Monday.

The FY-1D (FY is the initials for the Chinese words for "wind and cloud'') polar orbiting satellite will be placed into space atop a Long March 4 rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China's Shanxi Province, said Zhang Guangwu, an official with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

FY-1D is the first of five meteorological satellites the CMA plans to launch into space sometime between this year and 2008, when the 29th Olympic Games are held in China, Zhang of CMA's National Satellite Meteorological Center told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

The 950-kilogram (2094-lb) satellite will replace the FY-1C, China's first operational polar orbiting meteorological satellite, which outlived its designed two-year life span by 12 months on Friday, he said.

Li Huang, deputy director of the CMA, said the new FY satellite would lay the ground work for China to make short-term and long-term weather forecasting and monitoring of the atmospheric environment.

The new meteorological satellite, along with four others to be launched in the years ahead, will lead the way for the country to offer comprehensive weather services for the 2008 Olympic Games, Li said.

The satellites in the pipeline include two FY-2 geostationary satellites to be launched in 2003 and 2006 and two FY-3 polar orbiting meteorological satellites to be blasted into space in 2005 and 2008, respectively, according to the CMA sources.

The satellites will significantly bolster China's ability to forecast the weather, monitor the environment and prevent and reduce disasters, according to Zhang.

As to the satellite to be launched tomorrow, the FY-1D will monitor meteorological and hydrological disasters and the biosphere environment, to serve the meteorological, agriculture, forestry, water resources and petroleum sectors, Zhang said.

Designed to orbit the earth for two years, FY-1D carries a 10-channel scanning radiometer for the atmosphere and land and ocean observatories, according to Zhang.

The new satellite will keep an eye on the Yangtze, Yellow, Pearl and other rivers every morning, to help prevent floods and other disasters in those river valleys, he said.

It will also help monitor and prevent sandstorms, which engulf northern China at regular intervals.

China's first polar orbiting meteorological satellite, FY-1A was launched in 1988. The FY-1B and FY-1C were launched in 1990 and 1999, respectively.

(China Daily May 14, 2002)