Chinese-French satellite nearly ready

It will help analyze effect of surface winds, waves on climate change

Chinese and French space scientists are working in Beijing on the final assembly of their first jointly developed satellite, which is scheduled to be launched in the second half of 2018 to assist in oceanographical research.

Based on China's CAST 2000 satellite platform, which has been applied to dozens of satellites successfully, the China-France Oceanography Satellite, known as CFOSAT, will be equipped with two major high-tech instruments - French-developed surface waves investigation and monitoring radar and Chinese-developed wind scatterometer.