China on Friday successfully launched its most sophisticated geo-stationary orbit meteorological satellite that will allow 24-hour monitoring of weather changes.

The Fengyun-2D (FY-2D) was launched into the target orbit at 6.23 a.m. IST aboard a 'Long March-3A' carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The launch came after China admitted on November 28 that its space programme had suffered a setback with its new generation 'SinoSat-2' communication satellite, put in space a month ago, becoming 'defunct' due to technical glitches.

The second satellite in the Fengyun series separated from the rocket about 24 minutes after lift-off and then successfully entered the geo-synchronous transfer orbit, Xinhua news agency quoted officials from the satellite monitoring centre in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The 1.39-tonne satellite will station at 86.5 degrees east longitude right above the equator.

The FY-2D, developed and manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology affiliated to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., can observe weather changes round-the-clock and will be helpful during the 2008 Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images].

It is capable of carrying out infrared nephanalysis of the form and structure of clouds and can also analyse data about visible daytime light.

The Fengyun-2 D will form a twin-star observation system with Fengyun-2 C, China's first geo-stationary orbit weather satellite which was sent to orbit on October 19, 2004, director of the National Satellite Meteorological Centre Yang Jun said.

The two satellites have their own observation tasks, and at the same time, they can stand by each other in case of malfunction of either of them, Yang said last week.

The Fengyun-2 D will also enlarge the geo-stationary weather observation range and improve the forecast and monitoring on disastrous weather, Yang said.

In addition, China will launch the second-generation Fengyun 3 meteorological satellite in the second half of 2007, the official said.

The SinoSat-2, a broadcasting satellite launched on October 29 became defunct because of the failure of its solar arrays and communications antenna.

Today's launch marked the 94th flight of Long March series of carrier rockets and the 52nd consecutive successful launch of such rockets since October 1996.