China put into use Thursday its latest air quality monitoring system which provides hourly air quality information of the country's major cities.

According to a statement of the China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC), the new system provides air quality information on 113 key cities which will be accessed via the Internet, including indexes of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matters.

The country started weekly air quality reports in 1998, and then daily reports in 2000. The report is published on www.cnemc.cn.

Currently, China has more than 2,000 air monitoring stations.

The new system will play a crucial role in air pollution prevention and control, the statement said.

The CNEMC marked the 30th anniversary of its founding on Thursday.

According to CNEMC head Luo Yi, in the past 30 years, the center has frequently upgraded its equipment, enabling monitoring of air, surface water, noise, industrial pollution sources, solid waste, soil, among other substances.

Luo said the center is currently developing new technology to monitor more environmental factors such as optical radiation and thermal radiation.

Luo expressed his hope that the country's environmental monitoring system would advance rapidly with the launch of two environment monitoring satellites.

Successfully launched in 2008, the two environment and disaster monitoring satellites can provide a global scan every two days, closely track natural disasters and provide quick assessments of damage to guide rescue and reconstruction work.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2010)