On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would immediately stop ingesting, processing, and transmitting data essential to most hurricane forecasts.

U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday it would no longer process and deliver data essential to most hurricane forecasts

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it would immediately stop ingesting, processing, and transmitting data essential to most hurricane forecasts.

The announcement was formalized on Tuesday when NOAA distributed a service change notice to all users, including the National Hurricane Center, that by next Monday, June 30th, they would no longer receive real-time microwave data collected aboard three weather satellites jointly run by NOAA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

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, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines.

The news on Tuesday sent users across the weather and climate community – including those monitoring changes to sea ice extent in the polar regions – scrambling to understand the rationale behind the abrupt termination. Though not immediately clear why the real-time data was suddenly discontinued, the decision appears to have stemmed from Department of Defense security concerns.

Officials at the National Hurricane Center were also caught off guard by the announcement and are preparing their team for the loss of critical forecast data for the rest of the hurricane season.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1171·
    17 hours ago

    what the actual chicken fried fuck?

    did they do this because they don’t want data about climate change to exist? don’t these fuckwads know how much shipping companies rely on that information? not to mention the actual fucking navy

    • FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world
      24·
      10 hours ago

      It creates a need that a private company can then fill. It’s greed and grift all the way down with these fucks.

      Edit: (Bonus fuckery when they sell the existing instruments to said company for a “pay to play” access to information that was historically always free)

    • Wytch@lemmy.zipEnglish
      681·
      17 hours ago

      War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength.

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        1 hour ago

        But navy needs the climate projections from the researchers or they’ll be fucked when hurricanes hit too.

        • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          1 hour ago

          This is a very specialized type of weather satellite, it can see “under” the storm.

          Trust that the US Navy has top notch meteorologists in the ranks, probably the people most qualified to interpret this data for thier needs

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
        33·
        14 hours ago

        i can’t fucking believe we have to deal with this toddler stomping his feet about his stupid wrong weather statement being contradicted that one time by an agency whose entire purpose for existence is studying and forecasting the weather