FY-4 is the second generation of China's geostationary meteorological satellite series to replace the first generation FY-2 series. FY-4A is the first of its series as a scientific experiment satellite. It was launched on December 11th, 2016.

The instruments on FY-4A are AGRI (Advanced Geostationary Radiation Imager), GIIRS (Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder), LMI (Lightning Mapping Imager) and SEP (Space Environment Package).

FY-4A provides dozens of quantitative products for weather forecast and climatic predictions, including clouds and atmospheric products, surface products, weather products and radiation products.

FY-4A ground segment has several methods for data service such as satellite direct broadcast, CMA-CAST, intranet data distribution and Internet-based data service.