3. Testing of MCSR
A lot of testing on accuracy and function must be conducted before the MCSR was launched together with the satellite.

1. Testing of the stepping accuracy of the two scan mechanisms and the testing of accuracy of the combined stepping.
2. Testing of the optical instantaneous field of view of the visible, IR and water vapor channels and transfer function.
3. The sun and standard albedo plates are used for visible calibration of MCSR and the S/N ratio of the visible channel is also tested.
4. IR calibration of the MCSR is conducted with IR calibration facilities in low temperature vacuum chamber to obtain several T-V curves at different environment temperature and NE ?T of IR and water vapor channel is also tested.
5. Mount the MCSR on a rotating platform and when the rotating platform rotates at the rate of 100 rpm, the MCSR takes image of scene.
6. Testing of other accuracy and functions.

4. In-orbit operation of MCSR
The (FY-2) Geostationary Mateorological Satellite was successfully launched on June 10th, 1997, positioned at 105oE. On June 21, the ground station received that first visible cloud image, which is clear. The targets with a dimension of about 1 Km, such as river, island, cloud line, land and sea breeze, can be clearly resolved. On July 5th the jettisonalble cover of the radiant cooler was successfully thrown away. The first IR cloud image and water vapor profile images were sent back to the ground on July 13. From the cloud images sent back we can see that the resolution of the image, dynamic range, S/N ratio, temperature sensitivity and etc. all reached the designed specifications. Particularly, the IR and water vapor images have great contrast. The various functions of the MCSR operate normally and onboard visible and IR calibration reached predicted results. The instrument can perform various scan ways, such as normal full frame scan, regional scan, single line scan, etc. Since the images from the three channels are clear, visible and IR focusing has not been conducted yet. One point worth mentioning is that the MCSR has been operating for more than two years, the S/N ratio for IR and water vapor channels is very high. Up to now no phenomenon of obvious contamination of water vapor on low temperature optical has ever occurred.

At present the images and data obtained from MCSR are open to the whole would and serve the global weather monitoring and forecasting.