US Defense Department will stop providing satellite weather data

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Stated “cybersecurity” reason vs perceived motives

  • Official explanation is “cybersecurity concerns,” but commenters find this vague and unconvincing.
  • Suggested possibilities include: genuine but unresolved security issues; using security as a pretext to stop sharing; or outright misrepresentation.
  • Another view: this is about creating a market for commercial weather services that can charge for data currently free via NOAA.

Project 2025, NOAA, and climate politics

  • Many tie the move directly to Project 2025, which explicitly calls for:
    • Breaking up and downsizing NOAA.
    • “Fully commercializing” National Weather Service forecasting.
    • Framing NOAA as a driver of a “climate change alarm industry.”
  • Commenters see this as an intentional effort to suppress climate evidence, weaken preparedness, and ensure scientific agencies don’t obstruct an administration’s political aims.

Impact on forecasting, safety, and research

  • DOD satellite data have been used since 1979 for sea ice monitoring and for real‑time hurricane tracking (storm centers, early trajectory estimates).
  • Loss of this feed is seen as directly affecting evacuation timing and disaster preparedness, with some calling deliberate withholding of publicly funded lifesaving data morally outrageous.
  • NOAA’s public assurance that forecasts will remain “gold standard” is widely distrusted because of perceived political pressure and appointee backgrounds.

Program history and alternative systems

  • Some point out Congress voted in 2015 to terminate the DMSP program; most satellites have failed, and successors like JPSS and Weather System Follow‑on exist.
  • Others counter that the satellites are still operating and that what’s new is the decision to cut off data sharing, not just to let an old program end.
  • Overall, it’s unclear from the thread whether replacement systems fully match the lost capability for all users.

Technical and geopolitical angles

  • Technical discussion covers encryption, SDR reception, and the ease of optically tracking satellites, leading some to doubt “location secrecy” as a credible rationale.
  • Non‑US readers worry about dependence on US data and call for ESA/JAXA/UN or other multilateral systems, arguing the US is becoming an unreliable provider of global public goods.