BEIJING, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - China successfully launched Wednesday the third earth observation satellite jointly developed with Brazil, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

Satellite 02B was launched by a Long March 4B rocket at 3:26 GMT from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China.

The main purpose of the satellite is to gather information on the Earth's environment, agriculture, urban development planning and water pollution.

China and Brazil signed a cooperation agreement on the development of satellite 02B in 2004. Both countries have also agreed to develop satellites 03 and 04, and launch satellite 03 in 2009.

Satellites 01 and 02 were launched in 1999 and 2003, and produced over 1 million earth images.