2 comments

  • BenjiWiebe 6 hours ago
    The forecasters maybe should have prepared for this, considering Congress voted to terminate the DMSP program in 2015.

    The last DMSP launch was in 2024, but that one failed already. The previous launch was in 2009, and that one is still working.

    Does anyone know what the DMSP satellites provided for hurricane forecasting that the 4th gen GOES satellites and the JPSS satellites can't do?

    Note: I do think that shutting the program down suddenly when there are still some functioning satellites is a bad idea. But this program was very near it's end of life already.

    • tw04 1 hour ago
      > The forecasters maybe should have prepared for this

      Prepared how exactly? Developed a whole new branch of science that doesn’t currently exist? Raised a billion dollars to launch some satellites everyone expected a functioning government to take care of?

      You might as well be telling the guy that just got shot he should try being more bulletproof.

    • ahns 5 hours ago
      I suppose so, but this message from NOAA (https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/messages/2025/06/MSG_20250625...) shows a period of five days til shutdown, which seems extremely abrupt.
    • Neywiny 4 hours ago
      You mean they should've forecasted it?
      • bbarnett 4 hours ago
        A quietness descends upon the forest. Crickets cease. Birds stop their song. Even the very leaves stop rustling in the wind.

        In the eerie silence, a small bespeckled man approaches you, smiles and hands you a trophy.

        You look upon the plaque. It reads "You Bastard"

    • BenjiWiebe 6 hours ago
      Actually even the picture used in the article is from a GOES satellite.