QuikSCAT is no longer in operation, according to NASA. The satellite’s scatterometer antenna stopped spinning. If the antenna cannot be restarted it will no longer be capable of taking sea surface measurements as it had been in the past.
I wrote back in early October of the debate inside the weather community on the significance of QuikSCAT and a replacement and how the debate was causing significant delay in building a replacement.
Well, those same people that helped cause the delays in some sense are continuing to preach the urgency of a replacement.
You have no one to blame but yourselves.
It’s unclear the true effects the loss of QuikSCAT will have on tropical cyclone forecasting. But, one thing is sure: you can never have too many weapons in your arsenal.
NASA will continue to try and restart the antenna using various techniques. Considering the satellite was only supposed to last a few years but has been operational for 10, I suppose we should be thankful we got out of it what we could.
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