Vital hurricane satellites to go dark weeks into Atlantic storm season and NOAA rips media for causing panic

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 collecting critical 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 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 metho...