Via Jeff Masters’ blog at Weather Underground, NASA mentioned that one of the more useful tools in tropical weather monitoring was lost early this week:
Several hours ago, shortly past 7:00Z today (23Nov), telemetry received from QuikSCAT indicates that the antenna rotation rate has dropped to zero and remains at zero. The motor remains powered. The system can be operated safely in this state for an indefinite period. The QuikSCAT operations team will be meeting later this morning, but in all likelihood this is the end of the nominal mission".
Dr. Masters mentions that although there are other satellites available to help fill the gap in QuikSCAT’s wind-measuring functionality, there are downsides to the alternatives – either reduced accuracy, or reduced coverage.
Tropical weather specialists have been warning about QuikSCAT’s impending demise for a few years now…and have expressed concern that no replacement has been budgeted. Dr. Masters mentions that there is a Japanese satellite which could host a replacement system scheduled for launch in 2016…but for that to happen, a project needs to be funded beginning in 2010, and no such funding is available.
I suppose that goes right along with the challenges faced by some people on this Black Friday – so little money; so many things to spend it upon.
