NASA's QuikScat satellite completed two final thruster firings last Thursday to circularize its polar orbit of Earth at an altitude of about 800 kilometers (500 miles).
QuikScat's SeaWinds instrument, which measures wind speed and direction at the surface of the ocean, was turned on at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday, July 7, and is operating normally and being calibrated.
The spacecraft team at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, CO, the operations team at the University of Colorado and the instrument team at JPL have begun reviewing preliminary science data. High-quality data from the instrument are expected to be returned to Earth beginning early next week, once SeaWinds instrument calibrations have been finished.
The spacecraft, built by Ball and acquired for JPL by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, is in excellent health and has performed exceptionally well, according to spacecraft controllers. QuikScat's propulsion system, which was put to the test last week in a series of firings, surpassed its predicted performance and allowed the spacecraft to achieve its desired orbit ahead of schedule.
Now looping Earth every 101 minutes at a velocity of about 7.4 kilometers per second (16,500 miles per hour), the new ocean-
observing spacecraft will measure the speed and direction of wind at the ocean's surface over 90 percent of the globe each day.
The satellite will provide highly accurate snapshots of storms, typhoons and cyclones, and give meteorologists their first detailed glimpse of intricate wind patterns created during severe weather systems. These observations are expected to improve weather forecasting and storm hazard prediction.
