Status of the SeaWinds scatterometer on QuikScat

摘要

Abstract: The QuikScat satellite carrying the SeaWinds Scatterometer was developed as a replacement mission for the aborted Japanese Advanced Earth Observation System-I (ADEOS-I) mission carrying the NASA Scatterometer. Like NSCAT, SeaWinds is an active microwave remote sensor designed to measure winds over the ocean from space. SeaWinds can measure vector winds over 95 percent of the Earth's ice-free oceans every day, a significant improvement over previous scatterometers. Such data is expected to have a significant impact on weather forecasting and will support air-sea interaction studies. SeaWinds will also fly aboard ADEOS-I sensor scheduled for launch in Nov. 2000. QuikScat was successfully launched on June 19, 1999, though as of this writing the instrument has not ben turned on. This paper provides a brief overview of the SeaWinds instrument and discussed new applications of scatterometer data for the study of land and ice. !13