re: Seriously WTF? Critical hurricane forecast tool abruptly terminated

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Tuesday it would no longer process and deliver data essential to most hurricane forecasts as of the end of the month.

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Is it really? Because currently there is no definite track until it’s at least two days out. By that time it’s evident if any fronts and prevailing winds will then steer it and its intensity.

Also the planes are still going to fly through them to get their readings.

The most accurate track is still to take the 5 day prediction, move it a tad right. And tell those folks it’s coming.

People are acting like there is going to be some kind of surprise landfall now or something.

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I see you regularly melting like a bitch over the Bad Orange Man

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Nailed it. And he usually does so in extreme dramatic fashion. In fairness, though he melts the same way about many things. Search for his Aftco Shorts thread on the OB.

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Why would they stop providing this data after all these years?

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I know where you're trying to go with this but you should ask Biden.

At least now the venerable weather prognosticators will have another excuse to add to their reasons why storm tracking is really really like really hard.

More on the situation and proof that this wasn't sudden or unexpected:

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Col. Patrick Williams, director of weather for the U.S. Air Force, said the military can no longer rely on the aging Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) constellation. Only two are still functioning, and their limited observational capabilities are insufficient for modern military missions, Williams said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. 

The Mitchell Institute on Monday released a report criticizing DoD’s lagging efforts to recapitalize its environmental monitoring satellites. “For over 20 years, multiple incomplete replacement programs have resulted in this capability gap as DMSP comes to its end of life,” said the author of the report, senior fellow Tim Ryan. 

DMSP satellites in sun-synchronous low Earth polar orbits carry sensors to measure parameters like cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, and moisture in the atmosphere. They are used by the Air Force Weather Agency and other organizations to generate environmental analysis and forecasting models needed for planning aviation missions, ship routing, missile testing and other military operations.

“There are not enough DMSPs to give us enough of a refresh rate,” Williams said. “So it might as well be a dead constellation at this point.”

Ryan in the report lays out several unsuccessful efforts by the Air Force over the past two decades to replace DMSPs. “Knowing DMSP is on its last legs, leaders are augmenting U.S. capabilities with a family-of-systems approach that combines data from other sensors on orbit through partnerships with NOAA and U.S. allies,” he said. But he called this a “band aid” that does not address certain coverage requirements and refresh rates that are “very military specific.”

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DMSP has ‘a few more years’

Lt. Col. Joseph Maguadog, materiel leader for weather systems at Space Systems Command, said the remaining DMSP satellites still have a “a few more years of life.”

Maguadog’s office oversees the EWS program. Studies are underway to determine the most appropriate solution to replace DMSP, he said at the Mitchell Institute event.

The U.S. military is getting the data it needs via “a family of systems with our partners and NOAA, the European Meteorological Agency, the Japan Meteorological Agency,” he said. “And the only way that we are going to deliver the refresh rates that our DoD operators need today is to continue to work within that family of systems.”

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That article is also from Spacenews.com and is from 2023. There is more in the article about the patchwork of smaller satellites and other satellite options they will be trying to use. DoD and NOAA have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to these satellites, with both entities benefiting from use of resources that fall under the responsible of the other.

LINK to 2023 article

It is still unclear how they will be able to cover this gap or what viable options they have from recent satellite projects that have been launched.

It is kind of a clustrrfrick decades in the making. It seems decisions of the Trump admin aren't to blame with this one, at least not anywhere the extent that some people are claiming.

Hurricane Sandy says hello.

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You dumbass, where do you think they get the data? From .gov

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so local cities don't be got they own weather radar tech? Granted I don't be live in the bottom barrel state of Louisiana, but my little pawdunk town has it own radar tech and it be more accurate than weather.con so why can't your little state invest in is own tech that would save the lives of it's tax payers? Why the whole nation got to be bailing you people out yet again? Maybe instead of sending your corrupt trans looking mayors to all these other countries in first class and instead used that money to invest in tech that could save you tax payers lives so you can pay more taxes seems like the prudent thang to do. Do it be not? I'm sure Florida got is own weather tech to help save it's own tax payers, so why can't you be too?

Hurricanes make daddy trump look bad. So we'll just ignore them and they won't happen. Don't expect FEMA to show up after major disasters anymore either. Same reasons

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Hurricane Sandy says hello.

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You mean SUPERSTORM Sandy. Get it straight.