Trump admin will cut hurricane forecasters out of key satellite data in one month

CNN The abrupt cutoff of satellite details crucial for hurricane forecasting is delayed by one month until July according to a message posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Monday The impending figures loss from a Department of Defense weather satellite system was declared on June and slated to take place no later than Monday according to an earlier NOAA announcement The Defense Department will still maintain the Defense Meteorological Satellite project but broadcasted last week it would cease sharing the imagery with NOAA and NASA The decision which was initiated by the Defense Department caused an uproar among meteorologists citizens officers and the media in the midst of hurricane season The fear is that the missing information could degrade the accuracy of hurricane forecasts The move comes in the wake of steep personnel cuts at the National Weather Provision and other parts of NOAA The content in question is from a microwave sounder statistics known as the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder or SSMIS This tool is like a D X-ray of tropical storms and hurricanes revealing where the strongest rain bands and winds are likely to be and how they are shifting Such imagery provides forecasters with information about a storm s inner structure and is one of the limited techniques they can discern how hastily and significantly a storm s intensity is changing particularly at night and during periods when hurricane hunter aircraft are not flying in the storm According to a former NOAA employee familiar with the matter the Defense Department s actions caught the nation s weather and oceans agency off guard along with NASA whose scientists also use this satellite imagery The delay this source mentioned is the development of pressure from both NOAA and NASA administrators The new NOAA message supports this stating Late on Friday June th CNMOC received a request from Dr Germain with NASA to postpone the removal and to continue processing and distributing DMSP statistics through July st An update institution advisory will be sent and FNMOC now expects to decommission DMSP processing no later than July st the message states referring to the Navy s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center The satellite status message references Karen M St Germain the division director for NASA s Earth Science Division This indicates the intervening of a high level official in this matter The one month delay does not solve the issue since hurricane season peaks in August and September and there at this time is no plan in place for resuming the flow of this information even when a new Defense Department weather satellite begins operations in October Right now NOAA is planning for that microwave imagery from that satellite will flow to the agency According to media reports last week the Defense Department s rationale for cutting off this figures has to do with cybersecurity concerns stemming from the way the facts is transmitted between agencies NOAA has publicly maintained there are a large number of other sources of content on hurricanes that will allow for accurate forecasts this season The Atlantic hurricane season does not end until November and this season is expected to be another unusually functioning one