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in addition to the uh spacewalk work

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that they performed on the outside of

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the station obviously with some

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maintenance tasks there's also

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a number of experiments that are being

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carried out external to the space

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station in addition to all the work

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inside the station there are numerous

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free-flying satellites that orbit the

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earth and map our planet for various

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areas of research and of course we now

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have a new payload that's been installed

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on the international space station's

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external

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segment to give a different perspective

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lori meigs is at nasa's payload

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operations integration center at the

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marshall space flight center in

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huntsville alabama to tell us more about

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rapidscat is an instrument that will be

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used to measure wind speed and direction

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of the oceans and it will begin a new

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series of mounted satellites on the iss

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for weather monitoring i recently spoke

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with stephen vols he is nasa's associate

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director for flight programs to find out

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more about what this new satellite adds

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but what we're seeing with the launch of

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rapidscat is the first earth science

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division earth science focused

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measurement that nasa i think is

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invested in

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that is built for and adapted to the iss

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specifically it's an active radar system

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it sends microwave radiation down it

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transmits it down and if you have a

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picture you'll see this is a rotating

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dish it transmits a pulse down it's

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about 100 watts which is not you know

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it's a light bulb um and then it bounces

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off the surface of the ocean that radar

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now the ocean

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is rough or smooth depending on how much

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wind there is above the ocean so rough

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surface

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gives you a different scattering and

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we've done a lot of research over the

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past 20 years to understand to measure

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the

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picks up that signal and

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records it you can tell the surface

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roughness of the ocean and that can be

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immediately transferred into a

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measurement of the wind speed the wind

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velocity at that spot so it gives you

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the wind velocity in every spot you look

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at so what do we learn from from this

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new

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rapidscat system um what rapidscat does

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and is emblematic of what the iss does

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in general it it provides some of the

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same measurements that we have that from

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quickscap which is another scatterometer

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but it it actually does it from using

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the iss as a platform it does it in a

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different way which is quite unique and

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actually very complementary to the the

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free flying satellites what uh rapidscat

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does it it has a rotating antenna which

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which measures vector winds ocean winds

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um over a fairly wide spot several

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hundred kilometers but it gives us a

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rapid repeat and a high visibility of

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those areas the tropics regions where we

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have the most tropical storms

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what it also has is it was built with

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the same hardware that was used for

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quick scatter quick scatterometer which

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was launched in 99 it has the same

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accuracy the same spectral resolution

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the same measurement technique which was

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used then so that data record that was

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started in 1999 is picked up by rapid

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scout iss rapid scat and then continued

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forward and it's one of the key features

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of of earth system science is we have

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we're looking for decadal science we're

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looking at things that vary very

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minutely over decades so to do that to

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understand that you have to have a

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constant and consistent data record

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rapidscat will

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anchor the 11 or the 14-year record from

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quickscat and carry that forward into

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the next you know to the next satellites

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and and be cross-calibrating them with

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um acecat now what iss does which is

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really kind of cool and useful for us as

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a tool with a measurement is it has it's

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in a what we call a precessing orbit

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which means it doesn't cross the same

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time the same spot on the earth at the

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same time of day it covers it varies as

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the day rolls by so sometimes it'll

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cross over kennedy space center here at

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6 a.m sometimes noon 1 p.m et cetera

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every hour of the day over a period of

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time

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they vary on a day-to-day basis

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hour-to-hour basis and by doing that by

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viewing the winds of globally at various

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times of the day you get to see what's

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called the diurnal cycle of diurnal

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variability now you'll notice here it's

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windy in the morning but it's calm at

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noon and it's windy in the evening if

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you only take measurements at noon you

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think it's always calm there's never any

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wind no persistent winds by doing it in

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multiple times which is what iss enables

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you get to see that variability over the

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day and that strongly complements the

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single crossing time measurements that

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we have from our polar satellites so

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what do we use this information for when

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we get the data what is it used for

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there's a weather application and

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there's this climate application the

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weather application is the output from

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quikscat and from rapidscat in the

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future goes directly into improving the

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numerical weather models that noaa uses

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that umetset uses to understand the

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intensity of hurricanes for example when

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they occur or just weather in general so

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it's there are inputs that we've been

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providing to the weather services for

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the last decade with our scatterometers

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which this will continue and add to so

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that's that's the weather purpose which

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is very very important and improves the

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value of our predictions from a climate

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point of view what it does is allow the

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variability the diurnal variability

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allows us to look at a different aspect

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of weather of wind variability over a

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day that we don't have with our existing

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orbiting satellites so that's going to

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open up new avenues of investigation and

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understanding of how we of how the wind

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cycles change in particular spots on a

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daily or hourly basis and so a whole

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area of research that we have spot data

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from airborne science etc but from a

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satellite perspective we don't have a

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good consistent data record to start you

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looking at i think it'll open up new

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research areas

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and rapid scat engineers tell me this

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morning that the data is coming down

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looking great and they are still

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undergoing calibration but

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a successful start to a payload that

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should be on the space station for at

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least two years taking a live look into

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the payload operations integration

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center right now we have tj creamer the

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payload operations director leading the

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team here today and he knows a little

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thing or two about being on space

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station and running those experiments

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himself as an astronaut and also the

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paycom want to point out j.p wilson he

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just certified this week to become a

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pacom and that is the payload

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communicator who speaks with the

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astronauts and helps them

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with all of the experiments that they

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are participating in on orbit

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and that will do it for us from the

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payload operations integration center at

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nasa's marshall space flight center now