The U.S. Department of Defense announced on June 24 that it would basically stop using data essential to most hurricane forecasts. A day later, NOAA sent out a notice informing users that by June 30, "the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) will discontinue ingest, processing and distribution of all DMSP data." That means that all real time data collected from three NOAA/U.S. Department of Defense satellites that pertains to hurricanes will essentially cease to exist, at least in terms of getting that data out to the people who need it. It's a decision that will surely have ramifications in the future. "The permanent discontinuation of data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond," wrote Michael Lowry, a Hurricane Specialist and Storm Surge Expert at Local 10.com, "affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines."

Edited: 06/28/2025 at 12:32 AM by Dahui321

I assume that federal employees will not comment unless they already expect to be jettisoned. It'll be worth looking for independent opinions. I suspect that NOAA may be cutting back their acquisition and storage of data as part of extreme budget cuts. Over at NASA, next year's possible halving of science funds may require shutting down satellites that have been generating data at minimal cost--they're cheap to operate, expensive to replace.

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wavewatcher - >ww - >wavewatcher, again

I wouldn't be surprised if some other federal government department picked up responsibility for that.

Edited: 06/28/2025 at 08:39 AM by sharkey

Defense will remain well funded and has their own weather forecasting. Civilian earth-monitoring satellites seem liokely to fade away. Could be an opportunity for Europe.

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wavewatcher - >ww - >wavewatcher, again

Why change it at all?

Then again, there is no global warming if you can't see it in the data.



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I was right.

Edited: 06/28/2025 at 03:37 PM by Cole