The Defense Department may have retreated from a controversial plan this summer to stop sharing data from a popular weather satellite program.
But some scientists say information from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program has gotten spotty in the weeks since the Trump administration reversed course and kept alive a data-sharing agreement that helps NOAA with its hurricane forecasting.
The reasons for the issues are still unclear. A Navy spokesperson told POLITICO’s E&E News by email that “when we are able to respond, we will do so” but did not answer questions about the DMSP data. NOAA, which makes the data available to users around the world, also did not immediately respond. An automatic response from a NOAA communications email address noted that the agency was “unable to respond to e-mails or voicemails that are not mission-critical” during the ongoing government shutdown.
Meanwhile, the shutdown has left some users without data access at all over the past two weeks.
