A satellite program that has historically been a key source of
weather forecasting data will be discontinued by July 31, as the
United States enters peak hurricane season, according to the already
resource-strapped National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
The federal agency, which includes the National Weather Service,
initially said last week that it was going to lose access to the
satellite data by June 30. But in an update posted
online on Monday, NOAA said the deadline to decommission the
satellite system was pushed to July 31, at the request of a top
official at NASA.
Operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program has since the 1960s
collected environmental information each day from satellites
orbiting Earth, in order to provide real-time details about
conditions in the atmosphere and oceans to the military. The
data was made available to weather scientists for traditional
forecasting purposes, after being processed by a branch of the
Navy that focuses on meteorology and oceanography.
Starting Aug. 1, that naval branch will no longer process or
upload satellite data to the computing interface where
meteorologists previously accessed it, according to NOAA.
--CBSnews.com
June 30, 2045
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