QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

What surfer doesn't care about the weather? Who hasn't predicted the arrival of a new swell? Do all of it here!

Moderators: collnarra, PeepeelaPew, Butts, Shari, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
Donweather
Harry the Hat
Posts: 2599
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:29 pm

QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

Post by Donweather » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:36 pm

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/ ... s1129.html

How the hell are all the weather models going to get real time accurate data now?

Will this put a question mark on the reliability and accuracy of weather models, particularly over remote locations like the Indian and North Pacific Oceans?

User avatar
SAsurfa
barnacle
Posts: 1387
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:18 am
Location: 20 hours drive away..

Re: QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

Post by SAsurfa » Sun Nov 29, 2009 3:13 pm

:shock: Wow, that is a big loss to the forecasting world regarding, weather, surf, cyclones etc :(

I can't believe they (NASA) haven't been designing a replacement for when Quickscat went :|

A very useful and understated tool is now gone...

User avatar
black duck
Snowy McAllister
Posts: 5099
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:47 am

Re: QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

Post by black duck » Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:42 pm

This is bad news. Keep an eye on the models now for less accuracy, especially long term predictions.

The safety factor alone should have been enough to keep this technology in the sky.

5 years till another satellite is launched, if funding is provided :shock: I agree Don WTF?

How much would commercial shipping companies be prepared to pitch in for a new bird in the sky given the millions it saves them each year? Maybe it will end up a user pays service? That would be a shame. How does NASA prioritise it's services :?: (Who would want that job?)
smnmntll wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:20 pm
You foaming spangoloids need to chill before you all do wetties on the carpet

Donweather
Harry the Hat
Posts: 2599
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:29 pm

Re: QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

Post by Donweather » Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:14 pm

I'm still gobsmacked by this whole loss. Something so crucial to the world wide weather forecasting systems and they just let it die with no intention of replacement in the near future.

I'm just speechless!! :shock: :shock:

Donweather
Harry the Hat
Posts: 2599
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:29 pm

Re: QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

Post by Donweather » Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:53 pm

So can anyone (Ben, Craig, Alex, Steve, Nick and others) shed some light on just what the models now use for initialisation, and how reliable/accurate it is?

thermalben
charger
Posts: 963
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 7:35 pm
Location: Tweed Coast

Re: QUIKSCAT GONE....WTF!!

Post by thermalben » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:02 am

Quikscat was only ever meant to last a few years - so to get five times its expected lifespan is pretty impressive. Also, this is certainly not the first time we've seen a major outage from Quikscat, there have been many periods of prolonged downtime in the past. According to the most recent press release (Nov 23), NASA have not completely given up, however it does appear that this may in fact be the last straw.

There are a couple of other sources of wind data out there (scatterometer and other), but in my eyes, none are as good as Quikscat. China is about to launch a new scatterometer but this doesn't necessarily mean that it will have the same spatial coverage, frequency or resolution as Quikscat. There's also no guarantee that they'll make the data available to the general public either.

Re: model initialisation - Don, Quikscat returns only wind vectors (speed, direction). There are a whole host of other satellite derived products that are used to initialise the global atmospheric computer models over data-sparse regions, so I doubt that the loss of Quikscat will have a major bearing on the accuracy of the models (in general). Unfortunately, these other products are of limited value to surf forecasting :(

Unfortunately, this is something we just have to deal with and move on. Satellites are incomprehensibly expensive to build, launch and maintain - hence why Australia doesn't have any weather satellites (we receive satellite data from major weather agencies in Japan, Europe, China and the US). However, I am sure that this issue won't be swept under the carpet - Quikscat has demonstrated a clear value to not just the forecasting community, but governments of countries affected by hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. I suspect we'll just have to wait and see what kind of scatterometer data is made available from the other weather agencies before a decision is made to replace Quikscat.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests