Dong Fang Hong 77

Also called FengYun 3A or FY-3A

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General

Designation	32958 / 08026A
Launch date	27 May 2008
Country of origin	China
Mission	Meteorology
Perigee/Apogee	836 km
Inclination	98.7°
Period	101 min
Launch vehicle	Long March 4C #103

To replace DFH 54 (FY-1D)

This is the first satellite in China's second-generation polar orbiting weather satellites. Once completed, the system will have 6 operational satellites in orbit.

sat-index articles

Technical data

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Specifications

Prime contractor	Shanghai Aerospace Administration
Platform
Mass at launch	2295 kg
Dry mass
Dimension	4.4 x 2.0 x 2.0 m
Solar array
Stabilization	3-axis
DC power	1.1 kW
Design lifetime

11 instruments including:

VIRR (Visible and Infrared Radiometer) will provide intensities in ten wavelength channels, most of them in infrared.

MODI is a moderate resolution imager that provides images in 19 wavelength bands ranging from 0.47 nm through 1.03 nm, plus an image at the far-infrared 11.5 nm band.

MWRI (Microwave Radiation Imager) will provide images in GHz bands of 10.65, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, 89, and 150 GHz thermal emissions from land and oceans.

IRAS (Infrared Atmospheric Sounder) is a "sounder" that provides altitude distribution of aerosols and carbon dioxides in the stratosphere, in 20 wavelength channels.

MWTS (Microwave atmospheric Temperature Sounder) is an eight-channel (19.35, 23.9, 31.0, 50.31, 53.74, 54.96, 57.95, and 89 GHz) "sounder" to sense the vertical atmospheric temperature profile.

In addition, it carries, an ozone mapper/profiler, a radiation budget monitor, and a space environment probe to monitor energetic particle fluxes.

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