Trump delays plan to cut satellite data access crucial to hurricane forecasting [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Mon 30 Jun 2025 14.55 EDT
First published on Mon 30 Jun 2025 12.56 EDT
The Trump administration on Monday announced a delay of one month to a plan to cut forecasters out of an atmospheric satellite data collection program that is seen as crucial for hurricane forecasting.
There has been alarm among scientists about the plan to cut access to the data after it emerged last week in a public notice sent by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Some scientists had warned the sudden loss of access to the data for Noaa and Nasa experts could set hurricane forecasting “back decades”.
Monday’s delay in the program’s abrupt termination comes after an apparent intervention by a top Nasa official – a sign that the Trump administration’s stance towards science may be receiving meaningful internal pushback. The data is collected and processed by US Department of Defense satellites and had been due to be suspended on Monday.
It has been unclear why the decision had been made to cut forecasters out, though media reports had suggested it was driven by concerns about cybersecurity, and the new notice on Monday by Noaa describes steps as being taken to “mitigate a significant cybersecurity risk”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/trump-cuts-noaa-hurricane-forecasting
REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143487429
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