2008年5月27日风云3号A星（FY-3A）的成功发射，标志着我国第二代风云3号（FY-3）极轨气象卫星系统的正式启动。两年后，即2010年11月5日，FY-3系列的第二颗卫星——风云3号B星（FY-3B）也成功发射升空。FY-3A与FY-3B一起实现了我国极轨气象卫星上下午星组网观测。与先前的风云1号系列卫星不同，风云3号A/B星均承载有可提供给数值天气预报（NWP）资料同化的以下三种重要微波大气探测仪资料：微波温度计（MWTS）、微波湿度计（MWTS）、微波成像仪（MWRI）。MWTS可提供除强降水以外所有天气条件下的全球大气温度廓线信息。

 The successful launch of the research and experimental satellite, Fengyun-3A (FY-3A), on May 27, 2008 marks the starting of the second generation of Chinese Fengyun-3 (FY-3) polar-orbiting satellite systems. Two years later, the second satellite in the FY-3 series, FY-3B, was launched on November 5, 2010. Satellites FY-3A and FY-3B cover the mid-morning and afternoon orbits, respectively. Different from previous Chinese satellites, both FY-3A/3B provide atmospheric sounding data for the first time that are of particular interest for numerical weather prediction (NWP) data assimilation.Microwave Temperature Sounder (MWTS) is one of the three sounding instruments on board both FY-3A/3B and it provides global atmospheric temperature profiles under all weather conditions except for heavy precipitation.