Meteorologists are losing a sophisticated tool that many say it has proven to be invaluable when monitoring and forecast hurricanes.
The Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration (NOA) announced in a service change this week that the importation and distribution of data from the SOUNDER of special sensor microwave images (SSMI) would end.
“This change of service and termination will be permanent,” NOAA wrote.
The SSMIS instruments are part of three meteorological satellites in the orbit of the Low Earth and are maintained by NOAA in cooperation with the United States Department of Defense. The SSMI provides critical weather information that can still be replaced by other meteorological instruments, According to NOAA.
The NOAA GOES-16 satellite captured this image of Hurricane Irma passing the east end of Cuba around 8:00 am of September 8, 2017.
The tool offers forecasting the ability to examine the internal functioning of active tropical systems and understand their behavior. Specifically, SSMI uses microwave to penetrate the clouds and obtain a clearer image of the internal structure of a tropical cyclone, including its exact center.
Other meteorological satellites use visible and infrared images, which can only capture details at the surface level of the cloud tops instead of what is happening inside the cyclone. These satellites are also ineffective after sunset when it is too dark to see and when direct observations on open waters are scarce. The forecasts, therefore, trust the data collected from the SSMIS system during these periods.
SSMI data not only allow forecasting to better monitor the current progress of a tropical cyclone, but also identify the center of the system for weather forecast models.
The tropical analysis meteorologist Aidan Mahoney analyzes the monitors while working at his station at the National Hurricane Center of the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration (NOAA) in Miami, May 30, 2025.
Bello/Reuters Marco
Meteorological forecast models are sensitive to initial climatic conditions and depend on multiple meteorological data sources precise for the forecast. Any degradation or discontinuity in the data, either in terms of quality or quantity, could negatively affect the prognosis ability of the model, scientists warn.
While there are other microwave data available for forecasting, SSMIS represents almost half of all microwave instruments, which would drastically reduce the data available for forecasting. In the worst case, the forecasts say that it could lead to losing a tropical system that intensifies during the night, which would not be evident when using infrared satellite images alone.
The SSMIS system is part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), which is operated by NOAA in the name of the space force of the Department of Defense, which has the satellite control authority.
The DMSP program focuses on the design, development, launch and maintenance of satellites that track climatic patterns, oceanic conditions and terrestrial solar physics.
A space force official told ABC News that the US Navy is responsible for processing SSMIS data and providing them to NOAA and are referring to all questions about the decision to the Navy, which did not immediately answer the request for comments from ABC News.
A NOAA website screen capture shows the announcement of the DSMP program that is suspended no later than June 30, 2025.
NOAA
In a statement, a space force official wrote that “satellites and instruments remain functional.” The official added that the users of the Department of Defense, including the Navy “, will continue to receive and operationally use the DMSP data sent to the direct reading terminals of the meteorological satellite throughout the DOD.”
Meanwhile, scientists from all over the country expressed their concerns about the decision, stating that it will negatively affect the capacities and precision of the weather community in the monitoring of potentially mortal cyclones.
The interpretation of an artist of a DMSP satellite orbiting the earth. The Defense Meteorological Satellite program has been collecting weather data for US military operations for more than five decades and provides assured global and insurance climate data and space weather data to support the operations of the Department of Defense.
USSF
Matthew Cappucci, an atmospheric and meteorologist senior of @Myradarwx wrote in X: “Keep in mind that this change can and will have a negative impact on the forecasts on which it is based on Americans who live in hurricane prone areas.”
Michael Lowry, a hurricanes specialist at the ABC WPLG affiliate in Miami, wrote in his subtrovation blog: “The permanent interruption of the data of the special Sounder Sensor of microwave images (SSMI) will severely prevent hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond, affecting tense of millions of Americans who live throughout their hurricanes.
And Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, wrote in Bluesky that “for anyone near a hurricane area, this is a alarmingly bad news.”
Space Force told ABC News that, although the Center for Meteorology and Numerical Oceography of the US Navy fleet.
