The development of the infrared technology for meteorological satellites in Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics

The requirement of the infrared technology applied on meteorological satellites is the key driving force for the development of infrared technology in Shanghai institute of technical physics (SITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The meteorological satellites have become a main detection method for the weather and ocean observation, there are totally 15 meteorological satellites that were launched into both sun synchronous and geostationary orbit and more satellites are under construction to be the second generation ones. The infrared remote sensors are the main payloads on-board on all these satellites. By these infrared remote sensors one can obtain the remote sensing data for ocean colour, water vapour, weather forecasting, and get the atmospheric temperature profile and humidity profile, etc. As the key technology in the infrared remote sensor, the infrared detector technology is developed mainly using the HgCdTe material, meanwhile the quantum well infrared photodetector and type II super-lattice infrared detector are also developed.