Us Department Of Defense Will Stop Sending Critical Hurricane Satellite Data
Satellite data used for hurricane forecasting is to be abruptly cut off from the end of June due to “recent service changes.”
The data in question comes from the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), and the termination was announced via a notice from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The decision was made by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and affects data collected by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) instrument as well as other Near-Earth Space Weather instruments on three of the US Air Force DMSP satellites: F-16, F-17, and F-18. A fourth satellite, F-19, was also part of the fleet, but failed in 2016. The other three are long past their expected lifespans, yet have continued collecting data.
Or at least they will do until the DoD pulls the plug next week.
It is unclear why the department is so abruptly terminating the service, particularly since there does not appear to be a replacement planned. The notice said, “This service change and termination will be permanent.” Some observers have suggested that DoD security concerns are to blame. Others have pointed to a general antipathy toward climate science in the current US regime.
Either way, the data loss will blow a substantial hole in the hurricane forecasting capabilities of scientists.
In a post on Elon Musk’s social media mouthpiece, X, atmospheric scientist Matthew Cappucci wrote, “The SSMIS satellite are extremely important; as a forecaster, I use them constantly. The microwave satellite imagery allows us to peer under the overcast of a storm, probing the inner structure of a tropical cyclone. It’s especially important at night. Visible and infrared satellite imagery capture cloud top details, but not what’s happening *inside* a named storm.
“By resolving changes in a cyclone’s inner structure, we’re able to see how a storm is evolving – and potentially rapidly strengthening. The absence of this data creates an enormous hole in hurricane forecasting.”
Having far exceeded their original mission life, the satellites have arguably been on borrowed time. The Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) satellite was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2024, but, according to Hurricane Specialist and Storm Surge Expert Michael Lowry, “that data isn’t currently available to forecasters and it’s not clear if or when data access will be permitted.
“The immediate discontinuation of data from 3 weather satellites will severely impact hurricane forecasts this season and beyond.”
Cappucci noted that there were other satellites that provide the microwave data, “but this means we’ll have much less data to work with and much less frequently… in other words, the frequency of scans will be cut in half. This means we may go many hours without microwave data.” ®
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