Vital hurricane-tracking satellites are expected to go dark just weeks into the Atlantic storm season — and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pointing fingers at the media for fueling panic behind the shutdown while clarifying that crucial data will still be gathered.
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), jointly owned by NOAA and the Department of Defense and responsible for critical collecting environmental and weather data, will cease operations Monday amid a string of federal cuts to the administration, the agency announced Wednesday.
“The service change and termination will be permanent,” officials stated in the announcement without providing a reason for ending the crucial service or information about a possible replacement.
A NOAA spokesperson, however, was quick to cast blame on newscasters for “criticizing” scientists and reporting the service change in a way that could incite public outrage — later clarifying that a microwave instrument on another satellite will still provide crucial readings.
“The DMSP is a single dataset in a robust suit of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools in the NWS portfolio, which also includes microwave sensing data via the recently launched WSF-M satellite, which was the planned replacement for the DPSM program,” Kim Doster told The Post Friday.
“The routine process of data rotation and replacement would go unnoticed in past administrations, but the media is insistent on criticizing the great work that NOAA and its dedicated scientists perform every day.”
Despite the terse explanation, experts remain concerned that limited data will hinder efforts to track hurricanes, detect changes in storm structure, and accurately predict a storm’s path in real-time.
Forecasters depend on polar-orbiting satellites equipped with microwave sensors to track winds speeds and other data connected to intensifying tropical storms and hurricanes — especially at night when other observation methods are limited.
“This is an incredibly big hit for hurricane forecasts, and for the tens of millions of Americans who live in hurricane-prone areas,” Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist in South Florida, told the New York Times.
“The nightmare scenario is going to bed with a tropical storm and waking up to a hurricane,” he added, explaining that soon-to-be suspended satellite streams are key to preventing a jarring “sunrise surprise.”
With microwave observations also allow meteorologists to locate a storm’s center, Lowry warned that being off by even a few miles can have “huge ramifications.”
While the military satellites with remain in orbit, their data will not longer be processed by the federal government.
“We don’t want to have less data for no reason,” Andy Hazelton, a hurricane modeling expert at the University of Miami, told the outlet.
“We already don’t get as much microwave data as we’d like to see operationally.”
The news of the program’s suspension came just two days after Tropical Storm Andrea, the first named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, formed in the central Atlantic Ocean Tuesday morning.
Hurricane season typically lasts through the end of November.
The White House and Department of Defense did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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