QuikSCAT’s SeaWinds instrument, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, measures the speed and direction of winds over the Earth’s oceans. These data are an important input into weather forecasting models and are also used for tracking tropical storms and studying climate phenomena like El Niño.

The principal scientific goal of ICESat is to measure the height of the Earth’s solid ice cover in Greenland and Antarctica using the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument developed by Goddard Space Flight Center. Recently published results obtained from radar data indicate that Antarctic ice is diminishing rapidly in some areas but increasing significantly in other areas. An extended mission will allow ICESat to carry on this important investigation and improve the accuracy of the measurements. A flaw in the lasers within GLAS raised the possibility that ICESat might not even be able to complete it’s prime mission, but the last of the instrument’s three lasers has been performing much better than expected. Both QuikSCAT and ICESat have been operated since launch from LASP’s Mission Operations Center. The LASP flight operations team, along with engineers from Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation which built the satellites, will continue to oversee their operation throughout the extended missions.