I came across this on Weather Underground:

The QuikSCAT satellite, launched in 1999, provides crucial measurements of surface wind speed and direction over Earth's oceans twice per day. Forecasters world-wide have come to rely on data from QuikSCAT to issue timely warnings and make accurate forecasts of tropical and extratropical storms, wave heights, sea ice, aviation weather, iceberg movement, coral bleaching events, and El Niño. QuikSCAT's antenna is expected to fail within the next six months, according to engineers at NASA/JPL, and QuikSCAT data has already been removed from our global weather forecast models, due to concerns about data reliability.

Go to the link at the bottom and scroll down to: "Take action: sign the QuikSCAT letter"

There's a link to sign a petition from Florida State University for funding a replacement: http://coaps.fsu.edu/scatterometry/statement/