US Defense Department will stop providing satellite weather data

Here is what will be denied to NOAA, now and going forward

    Defense Department data also allow hurricane forecasters to see
    hurricanes as they form, and monitor them in real-time.

    For example, hurricane experts can see where the center of a 
    newly formed storm is, which allows them to figure out as 
    early as possible what direction it is likely to go, and whether
    the storm might hit land. That's important for people in harm's way,
    who need as much time as possible to decide whether to evacuate,
    and to prepare their homes for wind and water.

The public paid for this data. Deliberately siloing the data to insure it can't save American lives wouldn't just be theft, it would be an act indistinguishable from evil.

> NOAA, which oversees the National Hurricane Center, says the loss of the Defense Department data will not lead to less-accurate hurricane forecasts this year. In a statement, NOAA communications director Kim Doster said, "NOAA's data sources are fully capable of providing a complete suite of cutting-edge data and models that ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve."

I wouldn’t really expect a Trump administration spokesperson to put out a statement critical of the Trump administration’s decision.

This is Congress 2015 decision. The Trump administration extended the deadline by another month.

The congressional decision was to scrap the continued development of the DMSP satellites, not to decommission the existing ones or stop the data sharing arrangement. The DoD confirmed the DMSP is still operating and will continue to do so but the data sharing is what they have now decided to cut off.

It also looks like one of the “next-generation” systems, the JPSS, has been ordered to operate in maintenance mode.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/amid-trump-cuts-n...