Latest news with #DefenseMeteorologicalSatelliteProgram
Newsweek
a day ago
- Science
- Newsweek
Physicists Reveal Secrets of Space Hurricanes
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. New research has unveiled the awesome power of newly-discovered "space hurricanes." In 2014, an unusual phenomenon appeared in space, miles above the North Pole. It looked like a hurricane you might see on Earth: a huge swirl with spiral arms and even an eye in the center, but made of charged particles and glowing with auroral light. The space hurricane is a type of auroral event, like the northern lights, which are also accompanied by significant space weather events. In the case of the August 2014 polar cap aurora phenomenon, satellites observed an auroral spot over 620 miles in diameter, which appeared to look like a cyclone, including multiple spiral arms moving in an anti-clockwise rotation. Now, a detailed study of the event has describing the large-scale, cyclone-shaped aurora with a rotating magnetic structure—and a pattern of "electronic rain." "Our study revealed that space hurricanes can trigger significant ionospheric irregularities, leading to strong phase scintillations in GNSS signals," researcher Zan-Yang Xing told Newsweek. "Moreover, space hurricane appears to strengthen the localized current system, causing intense local geomagnetic disturbances. These findings help clarify their space weather impacts on near-Earth space environments." The 2014 space hurricane observed by the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager onboard Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F16 and F17. The 2014 space hurricane observed by the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager onboard Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F16 and F17. Space Weather/ AGU The study used multiple satellite and ground-based data sets to investigate the impact of ionospheric scintillation and geomagnetic disturbances, providing the first evidence of the impact of space hurricanes on the environment. Chinese researchers have found that these space hurricanes usually form near magnetic poles in summertime, and the event in 2014 over the North Pole likely caused irregularities, including scintillation effects—flashing lights—on satellite signals, as well as local geomagnetic disturbances. These hurricanes have the power to inject energy into the polar ionosphere, and the new study investigated the impact of this energy injection by analyzing the 2014 phenomenon. It found that GPS signals experienced strong scintillations near the hurricane—likely caused by plasma irregularities—and local geomagnetic disturbances were likely related to special currents being driven upwards. Schematic of the key observational findings and physical processes associated with the space hurricane event. Schematic of the key observational findings and physical processes associated with the space hurricane event. Space Weather/ AGU One side of the space hurricane experienced a pronounced increase in electron density, which researchers believe was caused by ionospheric convection and particle precipitation, or electronic rain. These findings have opened up new information on the space weather effects by space hurricanes, including that the space hurricane is likely driven by intense field-aligned currents from steady high-latitude lobe reconnection. Dr Xing told Newsweek that they plan to investigate "more space hurricane events, aiming to refine the predictive models of their effects on space weather and improve the resilience of satellite-based systems." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about space weather? Let us know via science@ Reference Lu, S., Xing, Z.-Y., Zhang, Q.-H., Zhang, Y.-L., Yang, H.-G., Oksavik, K., Lyons, L. R., Shiokawa, K., Wang, Y., Ma, Y.-Z., Wang, X.-Y., Xu, T., Sun, S.-J., & Zhang, D. (2025). Ionospheric Scintillation and Geomagnetic Disturbance Caused by Space Hurricanes. Space Weather, 23(7).
The Star
4 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Clear consequences
THE Butterfly Effect is the chaos-theory idea that the flapping of an insect's tiny wings can influence massive weather events far removed from it in distance and time. It may overstate the importance of butterflies, but it is a reminder of how small actions can have larger, unforeseen consequences. An even clearer example is the Trump administration's recent decision to stop sharing military satellite data with weather forecasters just ahead of what will be a busy hurricane season. The effects will reverberate far beyond weather forecasting, threatening lives and livelihoods and even accelerating the nation's growing home-insurance crisis. In late June, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which houses the National Weather Service, said it would stop receiving weather data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, including readings that have long helped forecasters peer inside hurricanes to predict whether they will intensify rapidly. This information is especially useful at night, when some other observational tools aren't available and communities in a storm's path are at their most vulnerable to an unexpected strengthening. After an outcry, the US Defense Department delayed the cutoff date to the end of July. But that still means forecasters will be missing key information in the busiest part of a hurricane season that was already expected to be busier than usual. Asked for an explanation, the Defense Department basically mumbled, 'Something something cybersecurity.' It's worth noting that NOAA is part of the Commerce Department, which is run by Howard Lutnick, who is the former chief executive officer of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald LP. In that role, Lutnick helped raise funding for and sat on the board of Satellogic Inc., a company that 'bills itself as an emerging federal contractor that can offer crisp images of natural disasters and weather events in real time,' the Associated Press reported earlier last month. Cantor had a 13% stake in Satellogic as of March, the AP noted, when Lutnick was still selling his investments to comply with government ethics standards. Maybe the plan is for a future in which cash-strapped local officials and forecasters have to pay Satellogic (or Elon Musk's Starlink, or some other private satellite provider) for life-saving hurricane data in lieu of free, time-tested government products. In the meantime, NOAA insists it still has plenty of tools to track hurricanes. Professional hurricane trackers disagree. In early June, weeks before the satellite news, longtime South Florida meteorologist John Morales went viral for warning viewers that NWS staffing cuts had already undermined his ability to predict the strength and path of hurricanes. Government weather offices in central and south Florida were 20% to 40% understaffed, and launches of weather balloons carrying instruments to study hurricanes at high altitudes were down 17%, he said. 'The quality of these forecasts is becoming degraded,' Morales said. 'We may be flying blind, and we may not exactly know how strong a hurricane is before it reaches the coastline.' This is an obvious threat to the lives and properties of people in the paths of hurricanes, especially in an era when a hotter climate is making rapid storm intensification more common. Average maximum intensification rates were up to 29% higher in 2001-20 than in 1971-90, according to a 2023 study in Nature Scientific Reports. Last October, Hurricane Milton exploded from a tropical storm to a Category 5 monster in less than two days (causing Morales to break down on-air), fueled by record-warm water in the Gulf of Mexico. It's never been more critical for weather forecasters to give people as much time as possible to evacuate and board up their homes and stores. Somewhat less obvious is the impact a hurricane-information gap could have on home insurance. If those houses and stores aren't boarded up in time, then they suffer more damage. If disaster-relief services (which these days may or may not include the Federal Emergency Management Agency) aren't in the right place when a storm hits, then damage could increase as properties sit in water and are open to the elements. Meanwhile, insurers and reinsurers are increasingly selling catastrophe bonds to help pass their rising disaster costs on to investors. Issuance is up to US$18.1bil (RM77bil) so far this year, the Financial Times reported recently, already topping the full-year record of US$17.7bil set in 2024. Some of those bonds have parametric triggers, meaning they pay insurers when certain weather measurements are recorded. In the case of hurricanes, those could be wind speed and barometric pressure. Spotty weather data could mean those triggers never get triggered, leaving insurers unpaid. 'This could ripple across the entire property-insurance ecosystem,' Anthony Lopez, CEO of the Miami-based Your Insurance Attorney, told me. 'Less-reliable forecasting means more surprise losses, which will impact how insurers model risk, which will lead to premium hikes, tighter underwriting and more insurance exits in high-risk states like Florida.' The gap between United States' home values and their insurance coverage against climate-fuelled disasters may already be US$2.7 trillion, by one estimate, invoking memories of the subprime mortgage crisis. Every fresh blow that makes insurance more expensive and harder to get widens that gap a little more and makes the eventual day of reckoning even more painful. Like that theoretical butterfly, the Trump administration's decision to deprive weather forecasters of a little satellite data – whether motivated by Project 2025-brand ideolog – will have far-reaching consequences. But we can't say they were unforeseen. — Bloomberg Opinion/TNS Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change.
American Military News
6 days ago
- Climate
- American Military News
US military reverses end to satellite weather sharing program
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Defense will no longer end the sharing of critical satellite weather information this year after the military's plan to stop distributing forecast data from three old military satellites during hurricane season was met with pushback. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a notice, saying, 'Due to recent service changes, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) will discontinue ingest, processing and distribution of all DMSP data no later than June 30, 2025.' According to USA Today, the U.S. military's decision to stop providing satellite weather information over a year prior to the anticipated end of the program led to widespread backlash and resulted in the U.S. military extending the deadline to July 30. ABC News reported that the U.S. Navy told the outlet that its Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center had initially 'planned to phase out the data as part of a Defense Department modernization effort.' However, the Navy said that 'after feedback from government partners, officials found a way to meet modernization goals while keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026.' READ MORE: US Air Force contracts with AI company to 'fingerprint' satellites In an updated alert on Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, 'The Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) has announced plans to continue distribution of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data beyond July 31, 2025. As a result, there will be no interruption to DMSP data delivery.' According to USA Today, Walter Meier, a research scientist at the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, explained that the three Department of Defense Satellites that provide data to weather forecasters use microwave sounders to track rain and wind. Scientists told the outlet that while the U.S. military and federal agencies use the information for computer modeling purposes, the information is also viewed as critical for documenting details regarding the Earth's polar regions and for obtaining hurricane data. Following Wednesday's confirmation that the aging military satellites would continue to distribute information to weather forecasters, Michael Lowry, National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Unit meteorologist, released a statement assuring the public that the agency's 'hurricane forecast tools should stay in tact.' Lowry added that a 'crisis' was 'averted' by the military reversing its original decision.
7 days ago
- Science
Government to keep sharing key satellite data for hurricane forecasting despite planned cutoff
The U.S. Department of Defense will now continue sharing key data collected by three weather satellites that help forecasters track hurricanes. Meteorologists and scientists had warned of risks to accurate and timely storm tracking without the information when officials made plans to stop providing it beyond the end of this month. Defense officials had planned to cut off distribution of microwave data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, jointly run with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, by the end of June. At the time, NOAA said the cutoff was said 'to mitigate a significant cybersecurity risk" while the U.S. Navy said the program didn't meet "information technology modernization requirements.' The discontinuation was postponed for one month. In a notice on Wednesday, officials said there would be no interruption at all. The Navy said in a statement that its Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center 'had planned to phase out the data' as part of modernization efforts. "But after feedback from government partners, officials found a way to meet modernization goals while keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026.' The data is used by scientists, researchers and forecasters, including meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center. It gives crucial information about storms that can't be gleaned from conventional visible or infrared satellites. 'This satellite data enables hurricane forecasters and their computer models to peer inside a hurricane's structure, offering vital insight," said Union of Concerned Scientists science fellow Marc Alessi. "Make no mistake: this data not only improves hurricane forecasting accuracy, but could make the difference between whether communities evacuate or not ahead of an approaching hurricane.' Other microwave data would have been available with this cutoff, but only about half as much, experts said — increasing the chance that forecasters would miss certain aspects of storms. A spokesperson for NOAA said the agency will continue to have access to the data for the program's lifespan and noted that it is just one data set 'in a robust suite of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools" that the National Weather Service has at its disposal to 'ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve.' The news had initially raised scientific eyebrows amid hurricane season, which usually peaks from mid-August to mid-October. Climate change, worsened by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal, have driven storms to become more frequent, severe and deadly. 'The last-minute reprieve has hurricane forecasters breathing a sigh of relief,' said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections. 'Loss of the microwave satellite data would have made it far more likely that timely warnings of dangerous and potentially deadly episodes of hurricane rapid intensification events being delayed by up to 12 hours.' He added the restoration of the data is also good news for scientists tracking Arctic sea ice loss. Images and microwave satellite data can estimate how much of the ocean is covered by ice, according to NOAA. NOAA and the NWS have been the subject of several cuts throughout President Donald Trump's second term. ___ Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ___ ___
The Hill
7 days ago
- Climate
- The Hill
Military walks back plan to axe forecast data
A new statement says that the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will still distribute data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program beyond Thursday. The government previously said the data would be discontinued after Thursday. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program has collected weather data for military operations for more than 50 years. Rick Spinrad, who led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under President Biden, previously told The Hill that getting rid of this data could worsen the country's hurricane forecast abilities. Navy spokesperson Ferry Gene Baylon said in an email that the meteorology and oceanography center 'had planned to phase out the data as part of a Defense Department modernization effort.' 'But after feedback from government partners, officials found a way to meet modernization goals while keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026,' Baylon said, adding that the September date is not new. The government cited a 'cybersecurity risk' when it initially announced it was shutting down the data. The Navy spokesperson did not directly address The Hill's question about what happened to this risk.
