{"id":30796,"date":"2025-06-30T17:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T17:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30796"},"modified":"2025-06-30T17:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T17:27:09","slug":"data-crucial-to-hurricane-forecasts-will-continue-but-for-one-month-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30796","title":{"rendered":"Data Crucial to Hurricane Forecasts Will Continue, but for One Month Only"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. officials said they would stop providing the satellite data online on July 31 rather at the end of June.<\/p>\n

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The Department of Defense on Monday reversed course, temporarily, on canceling the availability of satellite data that is key to monitoring hurricane movements and structures. The data will now be available to hurricane forecasters through July 31, rather than the previous June 30 deadline.<\/p>\n

The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration announced last week<\/a> that data from three satellites jointly run by NOAA and the Defense Department would become unavailable for researchers and forecasters no later than June 30. \u201cRecent service changes\u201d was the only explanation provided.<\/p>\n

An announcement from NOAA on Monday cites a \u201csignificant cybersecurity risk\u201d as the reason for taking the data offline. The decision to continue supplying the data came in response to a request from a NASA scientist, according to the update.<\/p>\n

Meteorologists and other climate scientists responded to the original announcement with confusion and dismay. Losing access to the data would immediately degrade the quality of hurricane forecasts, increasing risk to life and property in the United States and elsewhere, experts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to questions about the reason for the data cancellation, the reason for the delay or the reason for the timeline. NOAA declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extension of this crucial data through July by direct NASA order speaks to how blindsided government forecasters were by the DoD\u2019s sudden decision to terminate the data,\u201d said Michael Lowry, a hurricane expert who has worked at the National Hurricane Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt unfortunately doesn\u2019t get us to the peak months of hurricane season in August, September and October when our strongest hurricanes typically form and rapid intensification is most common,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hurricanes forecasts would not be the only important climate research affected.<\/p>\n

The canceled data services are critical for researchers studying changes in sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic since the 1970s, said Sharon Stammerjohn, a senior research associate at the University of Colorado Boulder\u2019s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.<\/p>\n

Sea ice in the Earth\u2019s polar regions melts in the summer and refreezes in the winter, helping the planet cool down by reflecting solar energy into space. At the planet warms, satellite imagery allows scientists to track the seasonal decline of sea ice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWithout that record, especially for the Antarctic, because it\u2019s so remote, we wouldn\u2019t be able to observe these changes that are so critical to our global climate,\u201d Dr. Stammerjohn said. \u201cMost people are much more aware of hurricanes than they are of polar sea ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other satellite products, including ones maintained by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, may be able to fill the gap, Dr. Stammerjohn said, there are challenges in accounting for variations in the data, such as differently-calibrated sensors and resolutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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U.S. officials said they would stop providing the satellite data online on July 31 rather at the end of June.The Department of Defense on Monday reversed course, temporarily, on canceling the availability of satellite data that is key to monitoring hurricane movements and structures. The data will now be available to hurricane forecasters through July 31, rather than the previous June 30 deadline.The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration announced last week that data from three satellites jointly run by NOAA and the Defense Department would become unavailable for researchers and forecasters no later than June 30. \u201cRecent service changes\u201d was the only explanation provided.An announcement from NOAA on Monday cites a \u201csignificant cybersecurity risk\u201d as the reason for taking the data offline. The decision to continue supplying the data came in response to a request from a NASA scientist, according to the update.Meteorologists and other climate scientists responded to the original announcement with confusion and dismay. Losing access to the data would immediately degrade the quality of hurricane forecasts, increasing risk to life and property in the United States and elsewhere, experts said.The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to questions about the reason for the data cancellation, the reason for the delay or the reason for the timeline. NOAA declined to comment.\u201cThe extension of this crucial data through July by direct NASA order speaks to how blindsided government forecasters were by the DoD\u2019s sudden decision to terminate the data,\u201d said Michael Lowry, a hurricane expert who has worked at the National Hurricane Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.\u201cIt unfortunately doesn\u2019t get us to the peak months of hurricane season in August, September and October when our strongest hurricanes typically form and rapid intensification is most common,\u201d he said.Hurricanes forecasts would not be the only important climate research affected.The canceled data services are critical for researchers studying changes in sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic since the 1970s, said Sharon Stammerjohn, a senior research associate at the University of Colorado Boulder\u2019s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.Sea ice in the Earth\u2019s polar regions melts in the summer and refreezes in the winter, helping the planet cool down by reflecting solar energy into space. At the planet warms, satellite imagery allows scientists to track the seasonal decline of sea ice.\u201cWithout that record, especially for the Antarctic, because it\u2019s so remote, we wouldn\u2019t be able to observe these changes that are so critical to our global climate,\u201d Dr. Stammerjohn said. \u201cMost people are much more aware of hurricanes than they are of polar sea ice.\u201dWhile other satellite products, including ones maintained by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, may be able to fill the gap, Dr. Stammerjohn said, there are challenges in accounting for variations in the data, such as differently-calibrated sensors and resolutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30798,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30799,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30796\/revisions\/30799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}