US Defense Department will stop providing satellite weather data
text.npr.org
text.npr.org
The DMSP program was discontinued in 2015 by a vote in congress[1]. Virtually every working stallelite in this program has failed. As best as I can tell there's just a single working one specifically NOAA-19[2].
Instead the program has switched to JPSS[3] which is part of GEOSS[4].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Meteorological_Satelli... (scroll up slightly)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA-19
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Polar_Satellite_System
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Earth_Observation_Syste...
Or (tinfoil hat on) they're going to do something the raw microwave data might expose and so they're trying to keep the microwave data secret.
The replacement is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Polar_Satellite_System
Defense Department data also allow hurricane forecasters to see
hurricanes as they form, and monitor them in real-time.
For example, hurricane experts can see where the center of a
newly formed storm is, which allows them to figure out as
early as possible what direction it is likely to go, and whether
the storm might hit land. That's important for people in harm's way,
who need as much time as possible to decide whether to evacuate,
and to prepare their homes for wind and water.
lots of ways to fill in that part. iterating the words seems worth the effort. Thinking out loud, there are readers with frame of reference, and movements or politics-in-practice that have frames of reference, in the messaging .. So making a 2x2 square and filling it in.. you can write for the readers and refine, you can align with movements or their spokespersons and refine, all combined with you yourself representing what you are about.
So to complete the exercise.. how many readers of YNews would respond to "that is evil" wording.. how many movements or politics-in-practice would say "that is evil" as part of their outfacing communications.. and how strongly to you, the writer, want to associate the concepts of "that is evil" with respect to other things that you say or think are important.
I write this pedantic screed because this is so, so critical to communicate right now. The narrow rocky valley pass in which to lay an ambush, is completely in place.. the budget strings. Everyone knows that this is raw executive power in action.. it is to be, because I say so, implemented via the purse. I am not sure how much to include those backdrop statements in any impactful messaging though, because "there is no bad news in sales" and popularity or adaption is part of the task.
It also looks like one of the “next-generation” systems, the JPSS, has been ordered to operate in maintenance mode.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/amid-trump-cuts-n...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Meteorological_Satelli...
AFAIK, Congress voted in 2015 to terminate the whole DMSP program. There was no mention of continuation of "data sharing" or anything like that, as you suggest. I guess in the DOGE budget cleanup of DoD, terminated programs are really being terminated instead of continuing to operate under the radar.
Regarding JPSS - that article says that new JPSS satellites are scheduled to be launched. I agree that the "minimum mission operations approach" doesn't make much sense if that is the case. My guess is that this is a stupid cost cutting move that will most likely be rolled back after pushback.
I’ve been thinking about that guy once a week since this administration started.
Predictions won't be less accurate because weather is beyond the comprehension of all people and no amount of data could change that.
Someone should file weekly FOIA requests.
And then people wonder why they are erecting spikes around the White House and the Treasury. The pillaging has begun.
> Break up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
> "fully commercialize" the National Weather Service's forecasting operations.[1]
The cynic can actually think “oh that project 2025 stuff, that’s just red meat for their base, they went actually do it”, but that’s because neither the cynic nor the idealist can face reality (remember, the cynic and idealist transform between each other).
The horror of reality is the raw hard reality, and there’s no cynicism or idealism that can prepare you for it - both were always a coping mechanism.
You can't privatise NOAA and the services it offers. It cannot work at an equivalent level as a private service. Its effectiveness relies on being able to decide what's valuable in purely scientific terms, and those terms don't align with short-term corporate greed.
But if you ask these cranks what NOAA actually does, they'll have no clue. They're not just evil, they're stupid - the smallest, most banal bureaucrats, cosplaying radicals.
NWS is what they're trying to privatize.
For other NOAA fallout effects in the government, a Potus wouldn’t have to rob from the FEMA funds if there’s nothing for FEMA to prepare for, in that FEMA cannot say we need to spend money to help flooding in Texas or hurricane damage in Florida. No cancel that and put that money into the tax break or 1% monetary “business investment” funnel fund. [0] [1]
[0] https://www.project2025.observer/?search=flood
[1] https://www.project2025.observer/?search=Fema&sort=agency-de...
But with public contracts it can be a very effective way to line ones pockets with tax payer money.
"Together, these [six main offices of NOAS] form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity. This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable"
"Scientific agencies like NOAA are vulnerable to obstructionism of an Administration’s aims if political appointees are not wholly in sync with Administration policy. Particular attention must be paid to appointments in this area."
Absolutely mind-boggling that someone can put that in writing with a straight face.
Ah yes, that very infamous industry of selling... alarm... for climate change. As opposed to Small Oil, which we all know is a very tiny industry that doesn't influence anything.
I found this one funny:
Overlap exists between the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Overly simplified, the NMFS handles saltwater species while the Fish and Wildlife Service focuses on fresh water. The goals of these two agencies should be streamlined.
Scientific agencies like NOAA are vulnerable to obstructionism of an Administration’s aims if political appointees are not wholly in sync with Administration policy. Particular attention must be paid to appointments in this area.
> Break Up NOAA ... NOAA consists of six main offices ... Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity. This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable. That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful functions. It should be broken up and downsized. NOAA today boasts that it is a provider of environmental information services, a provider of environmental stewardship services, and a leader in applied scientific research. Each of these functions could be provided commercially, likely at lower cost and higher quality.
https://envirodatagov.org/project-2025-national-oceanic-and-...
Tldr: shut down NOAA to suppress climate change evidence, research, and preparedness; outsource to private industry the remaining parts that are considered directly useful for commerce.
Is it any wonder that the CEO of Accuweather Barry Myers was a Trump donor who became a NOAA head administrator appointee in Trump's first term? The appointment fortunately failed. Now they're trying again.
Anyone know what that's about?
Let's try to make sense of that.
1) the cybersecurity talent from DoD and USG is so decimated it can't
field a response to whatever this concern is or
2) the DoD has the talent to resolve whatever this concern is and they
are deliberately leaving this concern in place or
3) the DoD is lying about a cybersecurity issue being the reason
that they're withholding lifesaving data (from benefiting
the public that paid for it).Hurricane Forecasters Lose Crucial Satellite Data, with Serious Implications
“You’re overreacting, nobody would be dumb enough to cut off access to data like that. Stop being alarmist.” - Everyone I have shared that thought with since.
Unfortunately, “I Told You So’s” don’t pay my rent, otherwise I’d have a decent home of my own by now. Here’s hoping ESA or JAXA help fill that gap until the UN can take over (an organization ideally suited for global meteorology tasks).
The reason:
For profit weather companies don't want free government weather updates going out to their potential customers.
PS. Having been on HN for many years and watched the full "disrupt old industries!" cycle, I'm not that surprised this is where we have ended up.
This is a sign of a larger effort to replay the fall of the Soviet Union in America: sell off public lands, privatize everything that was public, and charge more money and take on debt for worse services where funds are gifted as dividends to owners rather than providing value to customers because a powerful ruling class demands more money and more power.
hmmmmmmmmmm
US tech business gets tax free entry into our market. It uses our roads, our communications, our police and court system. All of this is to the detriment of our local business.
A huge amount of our defence spending goes directly to the US. We buy your planes even when we could make better ones ourselves. We have supported the US in nearly every colonial adventure since WW2.
Why do we allow ourselves to be milked like this? We are paying tribute to the US for being the ally of our colonial masters. Its time we stopped.
The UK was forced by the US to abandon TSR2, the best jet in the world, to get a cash bailout from the US, that it needed after all of the years fighting WW2 on its own...it spent all of its money buying material...from the USA. The UK invented lots of key military equipment, Radar, proximity fuses, nuclear bombs, jet engines, and gave them all to the US. It is about time the US paid us back, you leeches
The TSR-2 was abandoned due to cost overruns. The F-111 would have been cheaper...but even that was abandoned and eventually the Tornado came along...not a US aircraft.
The flow of military inventions flowed both ways during WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_technological_cooperati... Maybe if you hadn't had a coward as a leader in Chamberlain we wouldn't have had to bail you guys out (and lose ~250,000 Americans in Europe.)
Well done for skim reading Wikipedia. That is pretty much the excerpt from the top of the page shortened even more to take out key details.
Tsr2 was cancelled in 1965. Tornado entered service in the 1980s. Big gap to have no planes at all...
>The F-111 would have been cheaper
"It was decided to order an adapted version of the General Dynamics F-111 instead, but that decision was also later rescinded as costs and development times increased."
Filled in the gap for you
Tsr2 was cancelled due to American blackmail, neo-colonial bullying. A skim read of Wikipedia doesn't refute it
If you live in the US, are you actively looking to leave?
Check back in a few more months.
But a bigger problem comes before the above issue:most of the current human meteorological satellites do not have stealth capabilities.You can see them directly.Perhaps your idea will become a practical problem when satellite stealth technology matures.
This is a translation.
I do think you might able to deduce the orbit even if the data release is delayed by a random time period. If you’re a foreign adversary that has its own satellites, you can measure the same information from a known orbit. Then one could compare the published data with one’s known dataset to deduce things like the angle from which the data was measured.
Who knows, the Navy hasn't released any statement beyond "cyber security risks" so there's only politics to fill in the blanks.
It seems to be this agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Numerical_Meteorology_an...
Who recently got a supercomputer system https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/local_news/a-new-supe...
They also don't exactly move much, it takes precious fuel to change a satellites orbit.