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.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
    0·
    23 days ago

    You have to wonder why the administration’s trying to make Americans less safe. You don’t have to wonder that I know why, but you should ask him. Constantly. Loudly.

    • Zenith@lemm.ee
      0·
      23 days ago

      Killing adult Americans is part of the plan to get the population to trend younger again. However you can take out adult Americans and increase infant Americans will be taken advantage of

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
      0·
      23 days ago

      With this and FEMA being drawn down I’m guessing Trump wants to create cheap real estate for his rich friends to buy up. If you can’t rebuild you’ll move and take what you can get for the rubble you used to call home.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    23 days 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

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        23 days 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

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        22 days ago

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

        • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          22 days 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

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            22 days ago

            Trust that the US Navy has top notch

            people most qualified

            Ah, I see you have no experience with the US military. It’s not full of qualified people, only ass kissers.

          • Logi@lemmy.world
            0·
            22 days ago

            Having data is great. You can see what is… or was recently. But you need to feed this data into computer models to forecast the future, or a probability distribution about the future. And that’s what NOAA has and the navy doesn’t.

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        23 days ago

        Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows

        • gatohaus@eviltoast.orgEnglish
          0·
          22 days ago

          Let’s try again.

          Think carefully, surely you can see that two and two is five.

          Don’t you agree?

    • FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world
      0·
      23 days 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)

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    22 days ago

    You know what?

    Go ham. The south Atlantic coast and the gulf coast voted for this. Now comes the “find out” part. I am genuinely out of fucks to give. Enjoy your hurricanes and the non-response you’ll get from the now-gutted FEMA. See if I fucking care. Have fun machine-gunning your own foot.

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
    0·
    22 days ago

    including those monitoring changes to sea ice extent in the polar regions

    Ah, there it is. Kicking climate change under the carpet again, I see.

    • LordCrom@lemmy.world
      0·
      22 days ago

      Ding ding…we have a winner.

      Anything that monitors for data that proves climate change is real is now WOKE and Trump wants to sweep it under the carpet

  • collapse_already@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    22 days ago

    I gues we shouldn’t have made fun of moron for thinking Georgia was Alabama. Disrupting climate change tracking is just an added bonus for super petty grudge holder. Prosecutorial immunity for elected officials was a terrible mistake.

  • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
    0·
    22 days ago

    About project 2025:

    The plan, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, says that the weather service should “fully commercialize its forecasting operations” and focus on providing data to private companies.

    It also calls for a “review” of the work of the National Hurricane Center. It acknowledges that the center provides important public safety information, but also says its data should be presented “neutrally” rather than in a way that makes points about climate change.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      22 days ago

      Huh. Wow. So they actually did project this plan. And it really is about commercialization of weather forecasting and denying climate change. America is so deeply fucked from letting him get elected… ugh.

  • lostoncalantha@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    22 days ago

    Officials were caught off guard? What do you mean? Was anybody watching the last election and reading project 2025? None of this is a shock.

  • SabinStargem@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    22 days ago

    As ever, the Trump Regime is a colony of dumb and malicious assholes.

    Trump is making himself the enemies of farmers and coastal communities alike. If I were an evil overlord, I would want my logistics to be rock solid.

    🤦

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    0·
    22 days ago

    Other than this being Putin Puppetry, I have no idea who would think this is good.

    We’re castrating FEMA and NOAA. What is the benefit?

    • Typotyper@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      22 days ago

      Fuck Florida? Fuck MAGA voters down south? Crash insurance and banking markets? Crash US dollar and raise inflation?

    • zebidiah@lemmy.ca
      0·
      22 days ago

      The benefit is that AccuWeather will now sell that same data and profit,big dollar presidential donations are paying off!

    • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      Can’t afford to rebuild? Zillow will take that pesky property of your hands for a fraction of the price it’s worth.

      That’s the benefit. It’s a great idea honestly if your goal is to destroy the housing market for short term profits