Latest news with #satellitedata
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Democrats want to blame Trump for the Texas floods. They've learnt nothing
Companies such as PlanetiQ, Spire, and Orbital Micro Systems feed data from satellites to computers for detailed analysis. These private-sector innovations are revolutionising forecasting, often outpacing government capabilities. In fact, many government agencies now rely on data from companies to enhance their own models. Nor is rainfall necessarily related to climate change – another assertion regularly made by the Left. A new paper for the Heritage Foundation by Greek professors Theano Iliopoulou and Demetris Koutsoyiannis using 200 years of global data on rainfall concludes that variations in rainfall have 'no systematic pattern'. However, some regions show more variations in rainfall than others. Texas is one of those states with droughts and heavy rainfalls, and the Guadalupe River has seen past flooding. In 1987, a similar deluge killed 10 teen campers and almost drowned 33 more at Pot O Gold Christian Camp. What is important is to be prepared. Sometimes the forecast gets it wrong, but you can't protect everyone against every risk all the time. Senator Schumer wants to know the effects of budget cuts on future weather forecasting and disaster preparedness. But the real story is that major advances are coming from satellite data and private companies such as Disney. These new technologies often also cost less. The current administration is emphasising the use of new, more accurate technology to improve weather forecasting and disaster response. Blaming political opponents for natural disasters may be convenient, but it distracts from the real issues. The tragedy in Texas was not the result of a failure to forecast, but a question of whether enough speedy action was taken to heed the forecast, including by the local authorities. More will be gained by focusing less on partisan finger-pointing. Nature doesn't care who sits in the Oval Office.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
US military cuts climate scientists off from vital satellite sea-ice data
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Climate scientists in the United States are to be cut off from satellite data measuring the amount of sea ice — a sensitive barometer of climate change — as the U.S. Department of Defense announces plans to cancel processing of the data for scientific research. The changes are the latest attacks by the U.S. government on science and the funding of scientific research in an effort to slash the budget to enable tax cuts elsewhere. Already, these attacks have seen the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Science Foundation evicted from their offices, references to climate science removed from websites, funding of data for hurricane forecasts cancelled, and dozens of NASA missions under threat and their project teams asked to produce close-down plans as the space agency's budget is slashed. Now, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), based at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who have been using data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) that is flown on a series of satellites that form the United States Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, have been told they will soon no longer have access to that data. SSMIS is a microwave radiometer that can scan Earth for ice coverage on land and sea. The Department of Defense uses this data for planning deployments of its own ships, but it has always made the processed data available to scientists, too — until now. In an announcement on June 24, the Department of Defense declared that the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center operated by the U.S. Navy would cease the real-time processing and stop supplying scientists with the sea-ice data, although NPR reports that, following an outcry at the suddenness of this decision, it has been put back to the end of July. Politics aside, purely from a scientific point of view, this is madness. The sea-ice index, which charts how much ice is covering the ocean in the Arctic and Antarctic, is strongly dependent upon global warming, with increasing average temperatures both in the ocean and in the atmosphere leading to more sea-ice melting. Sea ice acts as a buffer to slow or even prevent the melting of large glaciers; remove that buffer and catastrophic melting of glaciers moves one big step closer, threatening dangerous sea level rises. Without the ability to track the sea ice, scientists are blinded to one of the most significant measures of climate change and become unable to tell how close we are getting to the brink. But there's even a commercial side to knowing how much sea ice is present on our oceans. The fewer icebergs there are, the closer cargo ships can sail around the north pole, allowing them to take shorter, faster routes. RELATED STORIES — Earth's sea ice hits all-time low, NASA satellites reveal — Climate change: Causes and effects — Trump's 2026 budget would slash NASA funding by 24% and its workforce by nearly one third Of course, the United States is not the only country to operate climate instruments on satellites. For instance, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has a satellite called Shizuku, more formally known as the Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W). On board Shizuku is an instrument called the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2, or AMSRS-2, which does pretty much the same job as SSMIS. Researchers at NSIDC had already been looking to transfer over to AMSRS-2 data, perhaps having got wind that the Department of Defense's decision was coming down the pipeline. But the switch will take time for the calibration of the instrument and data with NSIDC's systems, leading to a gap in scientists' data — a blind spot in our monitoring of the climate that we can ill afford.
CBC
27-06-2025
- Climate
- CBC
U.S. government cuts key hurricane forecasting data from satellites
Social Sharing Weather experts are warning that hurricane forecasts will be severely hampered by the upcoming cutoff of key data from U.S. Department of Defence satellites, the latest Trump administration move with potential consequences for the quality of forecasting. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it would discontinue the "ingest, processing and distribution" of data collected by three weather satellites that the agency jointly runs with the Defense Department. The data is used by scientists, researchers and forecasters, including at the National Hurricane Center. It wasn't immediately clear why the government planned to cut off the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's microwave data by Monday. The Defence Department referred questions to the Air Force, which referred them to the Navy, which did not immediately provide comment. In a statement, NOAA spokesperson Kim Doster called it a "routine process of data rotation and replacement," and said the remaining data sources "are fully capable of providing a complete set of cutting-edge data and models that ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve." Data helps identify rapid intensification Traditional visible or infrared satellites provide data that becomes images showing the structure, intensity and temperature of a storm, according to NOAA information, along with features such as lightning. But those miss the three-dimensional details of a storm. The microwave data gives critical information that can't be gleaned from the conventional satellites, and helps peer under a regular image of a hurricane or a tropical cyclone to see what's going on inside. It is especially helpful at night. The news is especially noteworthy during the ongoing hurricane season and as lesser storms have become more frequent, deadly and costly as climate change is worsened by the burning of fossil fuels. WATCH | CBC meteorologist looks at what's in store for this year's hurricane season: CBC meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler breaks down this year's National Hurricane Centre forecast 1 month ago Duration 1:46 Microwave imagery allows researchers and forecasters to see the centre of the storm. Experts say that can help in detecting the rapid intensification of storms and in more accurately plotting the likely path of dangerous weather. "If a hurricane, let's say, is approaching the Gulf Coast, it's a day away from making landfall, it's nighttime," said Marc Alessi, a science fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "We will no longer be able to say, 'OK, this storm is definitely undergoing rapid intensification, we need to update our forecasts to reflect that.' " Other microwave data will be available but only roughly half as much, hurricane specialist Michael Lowry said in a blog post. He said that greatly increases the odds that forecasters will miss rapid intensification, underestimate intensity or misplace the storm. That "will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines," he said. Ending satellite access 'is insanity,' researcher says University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy called the loss of data "alarmingly bad news" in a post on Bluesky. "Microwave data are already relatively sparse, so any loss — even gradual as satellites or instruments fail — is a big deal; but to abruptly end three active functioning satellites is insanity." NOAA and its National Weather Service office have been the target of cuts and changes in U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. Already, hurricane forecasts were anticipated to be less accurate this year because weather balloons launches have been curtailed due to lack of staffing. "What happened this week is another attempt by the Trump administration to sabotage our weather and climate infrastructure," Alessi said. Canadian impact of NOAA cuts When the NOAA cuts were first announced earlier this year, Eddie Sheerr was among a growing number of Canadian scientists sounding the alarm about sweeping NOAA cuts made by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, then run by billionaire Elon Musk. Sheerr, a meteorologist with NTV in St. John's, said he uses NOAA's data and modelling "literally every day." "They have some of the best hurricane forecasters and meteorologists in the world. I rely on that data and their expertise heavily when tracking these tropical systems, as do meteorologists throughout the country," he said in a recent interview. "They provide life-saving information. Period." Sheerr said he was using NOAA data when he decided to phone Port aux Basques Mayor Brian Button the night before Fiona slammed into the community on Newfoundland's southwestern tip in September 2022. He said he figured people would tell the mayor they'd seen plenty of bad storms. "And I said, 'Brian, you haven't seen this before. And that's what you need to tell the residents.' " Sheerr urged Button to evacuate homes closest to the water, and Button took his advice. Fiona destroyed about 100 houses in the area and swept a woman out to sea. Data from NOAA makes Canadian forecasts and weather warnings more accurate, Sheerr said, adding that he worries the cuts will reduce the accuracy of forecasts and ultimately make it harder to predict the impacts of dangerous storms.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Mitsubishi Electric's ME Innovation Fund Invests in Carbon Credit Monitoring Startup Archeda
Will advance the use of satellite data in the carbon credit sector to help achieve carbon neutrality TOKYO, June 10, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) announced today that its ME Innovation Fund has invested in Archeda, Inc., a Japan-based startup that uses satellite data to develop and provide monitoring and analysis tools for carbon credits. The carbon credit system enables companies and other entities to buy and sell greenhouse gas-reduction outcomes (reduced or sequestered volumes) as emissions-allowance credits. This is the eleventh investment that the fund has made to date. As global efforts toward achieving carbon neutrality gain momentum, carbon offsetting has emerged as an effective strategy. Under this concept, companies, etc. strive to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and then compensate for any remaining emissions by investing in sustainable projects that reduce or sequester an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases. In Japan, an increasingly active market is developing for nature-based carbon credits, including activities to manage, conserve and protect the natural environment. The demand for carbon offsets and nature-based credits in Japan is expected to rise significantly with the planned launch of a national emissions trading scheme in fiscal 2027. The scheme, which will apply to companies that emit over 100,000 tons of CO2 annually, will set a cap on each company's CO2 emissions and allow them to trade surplus or deficit emissions allowances. However, challenges remain, such as the lack of clarity regarding how credits will be issued, highlighting the urgent need for mechanisms to ensure the trustworthiness of carbon credits. For the full text, please visit: View source version on Contacts Customer Inquiries Business Innovation GroupMitsubishi Electric CorporationTel: + Media Inquiries Takeyoshi KomatsuPublic Relations DivisionMitsubishi Electric CorporationTel: +
