HN Reader

“Researchers say the satellites themselves are operating normally and do not appear to have suffered any errors that would physically prevent the data from continuing to be collected and distributed, so the abrupt data halt might have been an intentional decision.”

Wait, the U.S. aren’t even going to try selling the satellites? We’re just scrapping them?

It's part of the Administration's war on ... Florida?

But, isn’t European data modeling of hurricanes better than that of the USA? I assume this is only the USA forecasting that is being set back?

Welp, guess I'll start investing in carrier pigeons with tiny barometers. Back to the old ways!

Someone in the USA should litigate to forestall any irreversible shut down/sunsetting of these satellites. Under automatic systems they might last until the midterms when a 'night of the long knives' might reap a huge harvest - perhaps a dual supermajority to allow for some reforms?

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44409175

How can it be set back decades? Even if you had to design new satellites and send them up it would not take a decade to do.

  >The loss of DMSP comes as Noaa’s weather and climate monitoring services have become critically understaffed this year as Donald Trump’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) initiative has instilled draconian cuts to federal environmental programs.

Translation:

"We can't actually say this was DOGE, so we're going to imply it using emotionally charged words, and 90% of folks with bad media literacy will come away thinking it was DOGE (just check the reddit comments)."

This in-vogue method of "lying without lying" is shockingly common nowadays, but apparently it's okay for media to lie because Bad Man Bad.

Is loss of automobiles and reverting to horses next?

Did Trump stop the distribution of this data because he doesn't like what it says?

Thank you, Elon Musk

Similar topic was discussed earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44409175 (140 comments)

NOAA-20 is better and will still be available.

Also from NOAA: “Noaa said they would not affect the quality of forecasting.”

Decommissioning old sensors?

This is likely because the DMSP satellites are outdated: "In 2015, Congress voted to terminate the DMSP program and to scrap the DMSP 5D-3/F20 satellite, ordering the Air Force to move on to a next-generation system." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Meteorological_Satelli...

The GOES-R satellites seem to have equal or better resolution: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atot/4/4/1520-042... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES-16

DMSP resolves to 600m, while GOES-R resolves to 500m (don't confuse it with the older GOES satellites mentioned in the article).

So IIRC for the last 50 years the DMSP satellites broadcast all their data in the clear. If the program is only shutting down the ground stations and data distribution, it seems like an opportunity for some researchers to buy some SDRs and start collecting their own data.

I'm actually surprised that the successors to DMSP don't meet the same needs. Or is the problem that they do and the government just doesn't share that data?

The problem of important projects surviving political change is a tough one.

A lot of these important projects have a single point of failure - who is the president every four years. I wonder how we build institutions and resources resilient to that?

I realize privatization is an ugly word, but could some of this stuff be provided by the private sector?

Can we make it possible to fund initiatives in a multinational manner where countries contribute to these efforts, but if one country blinks out, then you still have it go along?

I know what Hari Seldon’s conclusion would be..

Its almost as if a totalitarian government is trying to isolate its population from objective reality, and make them dependent of the state narrative for understanding of the world.

Is the satellite link encrypted? Maybe radio amateurs can continue to receive its signals.