From the end of July 2025, the US Pentagon will stop providing access to satellite meteorological data that was used daily to forecast weather around the world.

This was announced by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), explaining the decision by cybersecurity considerations, writes DW.

This innovation, which concerns a number of specialized satellites within the framework of the DMSP defense program, is causing serious concern in the scientific community. After all, it was these data that allowed for real-time observation of hurricanes, assessment of cloudiness, temperature, humidity, and the state of polar ice. It is from such data that accurate weather forecasts and climate change models are formed.

Previously, this satellite data was processed at the US Navy’s military meteorological center, and later became freely available to research centers and the civilian sector. Now this will not be the case. Although the decision is not related to budget cuts, scientists say the loss of access to these resources is a significant blow to the global weather system.

Meteorologists, including experts from Europe and the Global South, are already looking for alternatives, including Japanese satellites. But, as noted by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), replacing full access to American data is not yet technically feasible. This will be especially felt by countries with limited meteorological infrastructures that have relied on automated data transmission from the United States.

It also became known that the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, one of the oldest stations, which has continuously recorded the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1958, will be closed. Although its closure is not related to security, observers believe that the decision may have political grounds, especially given the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Experts warn: the reduction in the exchange of meteorological data will affect not only the accuracy of forecasts, but also the ability to respond in advance to climate disasters – hurricanes, droughts, floods. In the context of global warming, this is a particularly alarming signal.

We will remind, in the National Nature Park “Tuzlivski Lymany” in the Odesa Region, tens of thousands of crabs and even stingrays washed ashore.

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