HN Reader

As a non-American who's life has been previously saved by knowing that a typhoon would strike my home this has me wondering how we will be affected. A lot of smaller countries don't have the infrastructure/man power to maintain a space program. To what extent is the rest of the world reliant on this data and what does this mean for us? Will we still have predictions? How does international collaboration on meteorology generally work? Do Europeans/Chinese/Indians/Russians also share data about weather?

Such hyperbolic comments!

The DMSP program was discontinued in 2015 by a vote in congress[1]. Virtually every working stallelite in this program has failed. As best as I can tell there's just a single working one specifically NOAA-19[2].

Instead the program has switched to JPSS[3] which is part of GEOSS[4].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Meteorological_Satelli... (scroll up slightly)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA-19

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Polar_Satellite_System

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Earth_Observation_Syste...

I see 3 possibilities: They're cutting it off to limit bad news about climate change, for political reasons. Or they're trying to set up some private company to sell the same data.

Or (tinfoil hat on) they're going to do something the raw microwave data might expose and so they're trying to keep the microwave data secret.

Also historically happens during wartimes: https://niemanreports.org/press-access-to-satellite-images-i...

Here is what will be denied to NOAA, now and going forward

    Defense Department data also allow hurricane forecasters to see
    hurricanes as they form, and monitor them in real-time.

    For example, hurricane experts can see where the center of a 
    newly formed storm is, which allows them to figure out as 
    early as possible what direction it is likely to go, and whether
    the storm might hit land. That's important for people in harm's way,
    who need as much time as possible to decide whether to evacuate,
    and to prepare their homes for wind and water.

The public paid for this data. Deliberately siloing the data to insure it can't save American lives wouldn't just be theft, it would be an act indistinguishable from evil.

This is example number 7748492 of how the decline of America will be practically irreversible once a political machine with any kind of rational worldview is in charge again. It took a century to build some of the things that are being destroyed in days or weeks. We're looking at the fall of rome. The only question now is whether a dark age follows or whether someone else takes over.

This is part of Project 2025 to destroy the NOAA. [0]

> Break up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

> "fully commercialize" the National Weather Service's forecasting operations.[1]

[0] https://www.project2025.observer/?search=NOAA

[1] https://www.project2025.observer/?search=Weather

Is this an attempt at controlling the narrative around climate change, in line with the impacts at NOAA and other climate-related government agencies?

> "There are cybersecurity concerns. That's what we're being told."

Anyone know what that's about?

Good God. The Fall of civilizations episode for the United States will be galactically stupid. The Sumerians: climate change and soil degradation. The Assyrians: external tribes organizing against their brutality. The US: fox news, AM radio, and conspiracy theory uncle Facebook memes.

Earlier:

Hurricane Forecasters Lose Crucial Satellite Data, with Serious Implications

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44402665

Are the satellites being turned off, or could people with SDRs pick this up directly from space and offer it up for free?

What unique weather monitoring does DoD have over civilian capabilities or other govs who has weather satellites?

No one agrees to this so why are we accepting this??

“We shouldn’t keep trusting nation-states for meteorology data. They can and will cut off access if the powers that be demand it, even if it hurts billions of others by doing so.” - Me, circa mid-2010s

“You’re overreacting, nobody would be dumb enough to cut off access to data like that. Stop being alarmist.” - Everyone I have shared that thought with since.

Unfortunately, “I Told You So’s” don’t pay my rent, otherwise I’d have a decent home of my own by now. Here’s hoping ESA or JAXA help fill that gap until the UN can take over (an organization ideally suited for global meteorology tasks).

Its like dump said, they will start nuking the typhoons or whatever that shape is on the radar. Aint nobody got time for analysis

so now we get to pay for our weather forecasts twice, once for the military and once for us

The billionaire's mantra: "Anything free is communism! Gubberment bad!"

This is a sign of a larger effort to replay the fall of the Soviet Union in America: sell off public lands, privatize everything that was public, and charge more money and take on debt for worse services where funds are gifted as dividends to owners rather than providing value to customers because a powerful ruling class demands more money and more power.

> "It's not an issue of funding cuts," says Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a federally funded research center in Colorado that has relied on the soon-to-be-terminated Defense Department data **to track sea ice since 1979**. "There are cybersecurity concerns. That's what we're being told."

hmmmmmmmmmm

The rest of the world needs to club closer together, and quickly. The US is no longer a reliable ally.

My hunch is that the location of the satellites can be deduced from the weather data. These satellites would be a target in a time of war.