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Defense Department Reverses Plan to Cut Vital Satellite Data
30 Jul
Summary
- Department of Defense cancels plans to discontinue crucial hurricane forecasting data
- Program will remain available until sensors stop working or end in 2026
- Modernization efforts underway to replace aging satellites with new fleet
In a surprising reversal, the Department of Defense has announced it will cancel plans to discontinue a program that provides public satellite data essential for hurricane forecasting and sea ice monitoring. The decision comes just two days before the program was set to end on July 31, 2022.
The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), which hosts the data, had shocked scientists in June by announcing it would stop providing the information, citing "significant cybersecurity risk." However, after feedback from government partners, the Department of Defense has found a way to meet its modernization goals while keeping the data flowing.
The program, which dates back to 1962, will now remain available indefinitely until the sensors stop working or the program formally ends in September 2026. This will give forecasters and researchers time to prepare for the eventual transition to a new, modernized satellite fleet, the first of which launched in 2024 but is not yet providing data to NOAA.
