Trump terminates satellite data considered crucial to storm forecasting
A Department of Defense weather satellite program that collects vital information for hurricane forecasts will stop distributing data products to users Monday. The termination of data products from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program could lead to dangerous declines in the quality of hurricane forecasts, meteorologists say. … NOAA, which provides operational support for the program, issued a termination notice Wednesday. The agency did not provide reasons for the decision. An official for the U.S. Space Force, which manages the program, confirmed that the satellites and their instruments are still fully functional. And the Defense Department will still have access to DMSP data. But for the program’s large network of users, the data products are going dark — and it’s still unclear why. … It’s a constellation of weather satellites collecting a variety of measurements used to track everything from thunderstorms to fog to snow and ice cover. Its data products are used by researchers around the world, including forecasters at the National Weather Service.
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