SeaWinds on QuikSCAT: sensor description and mission overview

Author

Tsai, W.-Y. ; Spencer, M. ; Wu, C. ; Winn, C. ; Kellogg, K.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

3

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

1021

Abstract

The SeaWinds instrument is the first “pencilbeam” scatterometer to routinely measure ocean surface winds from space. Developed to fly on-board the Japanese ADEOS-II mission, the first flight of SeaWinds was moved up several years when the ADEOS-I satellite carrying the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) failed. Utilizing only a one year development time, a dedicated small spacecraft was purchased and the SeaWinds spare hardware was adapted for flight. The SeaWinds on QuikSCAT mission was successfully launched on June 19, 1999. The QuikSCAT mission, the SeaWinds instrument, and the SeaWinds ground data processing are briefly described

Keywords

atmospheric measuring apparatus; atmospheric techniques; meteorological radar; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; wind; QuikSCAT; SeaWinds; equipment; instrument; marine atmosphere; measurement technique; meteorological radar; mission overview; pencilbeam scatterometry; radar remote sensing; radar scatterometry; sensor description; spaceborne radar; surface wind; wind; wind speed; Extraterrestrial measurements; Instruments; NASA; Oceans; Radar measurements; Satellites; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Spaceborne radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2000. Proceedings. IGARSS 2000. IEEE 2000 International

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6359-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2000.858008

Filename

858008