China's Fengyun 4B weather satellite test captured its first group of high-definition pictures from orbit on July 1, enabling people to clearly see the real-time changes of weather patterns with their naked eyes.

The satellite was successfully launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan province on June 3, 2021.

The rapid-imaging device carried by the satellite is able to take pictures every minute that cover 4 million square kilometers.

The imaging range reaches the Indian Ocean in the west, the Pacific Ocean in the east and broad areas of Oceania.

The research team, led by Professor Wu Xiaohong from the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), contributed to the successful operation of the rapid-imaging device.

Wu's team undertook the task of developing the device's box and sunshade.

The device's box is China's first composite material box featuring ultra-low pollution, high-stability electrically and thermally conductive structural and functional integration.

Also, the sunshade is the country's first high-efficiency stray-light suppression and ultra-low pollution honeycomb-sandwich-structure composite sunshade for geostationary orbit meteorological satellites.

They are both made by a series of conductive, thermally conductive and stray-light reducing functional materials developed by Wu's team.

The box and sunshade provide a strong guarantee for the rapid-imaging device to obtain higher-definition image quality.