NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The information in this video was accurate as of the original publication date.

Audience: Educators and Students
Grades: 9-12
Year: 2001


This NASA video segment explains how a scatterometer monitors wind direction and speed from space. The scatterometer records the oceans' wavelet patterns by continuously sending and receiving radio waves to and from the oceans' surfaces. Viewers listen to various engineers who designed the first scatterometer, NSCAT, and learn that after 10 months of operation the instrument lost power in 1997.

NASA Scatterometer
Duration: 3 minutes 03 seconds
> View QuickTime [10MB]


This video clip is part of the Sea Winds: Catch the Wind -- The QuikSCAT Story DVD that may be ordered from the Central Operation of Resources for Educators, or CORE  →.


Other video learning clips in this series:
Catch the Wind: Oceans, Atmosphere and Climate
The Role of Engineering at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
QuikSCAT: A New Mission Is Born
QuikSCAT Weather Data Arrives To Scientists