The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday it is delaying by one month the planned cutoff of satellite data that helps forecasters track hurricanes.
Meteorologists and scientists warned of severe consequences last week when NOAA said, in the midst of this year’s hurricane season, that it would almost immediately discontinue key data collected by three weather satellites that the agency jointly runs with the U.S. Defense Department.
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s microwave data gives key information that can’t be gleaned from conventional satellites. That includes three-dimensional details of a storm, what’s going on inside of it and what it is doing in the overnight hours, experts say.
The data was initially planned to be cut off on June 30 “to mitigate a significant cybersecurity risk,” NOAA’s announcement said. The agency now says it’s postponing that until July 31. Peak hurricane season is usually from mid-August to mid-October.
NOAA didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking more details about the reason for the delay. The U.S. Navy confirmed the new date and said only that the “program no longer meets our information technology modernization requirements.”
Satellite data ‘essential,’ scientist says
NOAA — which has been the subject of hefty Department of Government Efficiency cuts this year — said Friday the satellite program accounts for a “single dataset in a robust suite of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools” in the National Weather Service’s portfolio.
The agency’s “data sources are fully capable of providing a complete suite of cutting-edge data and models that ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve,” a spokesperson said.
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Fired climate scientist Tom Di Liberto says lives are at risk from extreme weather as more cuts loom over the U.S. government agency responsible for forecasting and much more. Di Liberto lost his job as part of a massive purge by the Trump administration, and worries the layoffs will not only cost the U.S. more money, but will cripple weather forecasting across the continent, leaving many people vulnerable to natural hazards.
Environment and Climate Change Canada said in an email to CBC News that they do not expect the suspension of the U.S satellite data to impact the quality of its forecasts, saying that they have a wide variety of tools and work closely with other services, as well as the World Meteorological Organization.
“Canadians can continue to rely on ECCC for timely, reliable hurricane forecasts, alerts, and tracking information,” said an ECCC spokesperson.
“The department’s capacity to deliver climate and air quality science is not affected by these changes because it operates its own Canadian models and uses a variety of observations from different sources to forecast Canada’s changing weather and its impacts on people living in Canada.”
But Union of Concerned Scientists science fellow Marc Alessi told The Associated Press on Friday that detecting the rapid intensification, and more accurately predicting the likely path, of storms is critical as climate change worsens extreme weather experienced across the globe.
“Not only are we losing the ability to make better intensification forecasts, we are also losing the ability to predict accurately where a tropical cyclone could be going, if it’s in its development stages,” Alessi said. “This data is essential.”
“On the seasonal forecasting front, we would see the effects,” he added, “but also on the long-term climate change front, we now are losing an essential piece to monitoring global warming.”
Data helps identify rapid intensification
Traditional visible or infrared satellites provide data that becomes images showing the structure, intensity and temperature of a storm, according to NOAA information, along with features such as lightning. But those miss the three-dimensional details of a storm.
The microwave data gives critical information that can’t be gleaned from conventional satellites, and helps peer under a regular image of a hurricane or a tropical cyclone to see what’s going on inside. It is especially helpful at night.
“Think of hurricane forecasting like diagnosing a serious medical condition. Losing access to these special satellite sensors will limit our ability to see the fine details of a storm that other satellites miss — similar to how a CT scan can reveal important details that an X-ray can miss,” Chris Scott, The Weather Network’s chief meteorologist, said in an email to CBC News on Friday when the cut off was first announced.
Scott said Canadian meteorologists use satellite data to estimate the strength and location of hurricanes approaching the Atlantic provinces. Losing that data could mean a storm forecast to hit Nova Scotia in a day could look weaker than it actually is, which could affect how people prepare.
“While the impact of losing this data will vary depending on the situation, there’s no question it’s a negative,” he said.