Chinese Weather Balloons Ready for Use in Africa

The first 20,000 sounding weather balloons produced by a Chinese company have been exported to 16 African countries for meteorological observation. It will be the first time the African countries use China-made meteorological balloons.

Weather balloons can collect the most accurate weather environment data.

The weather balloons have been distributed to the meteorological departments of 16 African countries and are expected to help detect wind direction and speed, temperature and humidity, supporting weather disaster prevention and mitigation and improving ability to cope with related changes experienced by these countries.

A staff member at the meteorological station releases a weather balloon. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The balloons are produced by Zhuzhou Rubber Research & Design Institute Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sinochem Holdings Corporation Ltd.

The company is taking the lead in China's weather balloon research and development and 75 percent of the country's upper-air meteorological stations are using weather balloons made by the company.

It has exported more than 130,000 weather balloons annually to over 40 countries and regions including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia, Turkey, India and Kazakhstan.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)