The United States is suspending sharing key satellite weather data this month raising concerns over cyclone forecast accuracy in the French West Indies. The move, linked to "cybersecurity risks" and US budget cuts, comes as the Atlantic cyclone season intensifies.
While more intense cyclonic rains due to global warming are expected until the end of the year, the French West Indies islands will see their weather forecasts disrupted following the suspension of the sharing of some of the American satellite data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This decision by the American agency is justified by "a significant cybersecurity risk," according to a message posted on its website. Initially planned for 30 June, the measure will finally take effect on 31 July.
This halt in sharing satellite data comes in the context of massive budget cuts imposed by the White House, particularly in the field of science. The NOAA recently had to lay off about 20 percent of its workforce.
"We know that managers were fired, notably in the services that sent reconnaissance planes into the heart of hurricanes," lamented Thierry Jimonet, meteorologist for Météo-France in Guadeloupe, interviewed by French news agency AFP in March.
These massive cuts weaken the data used by climatologists worldwide.
'Microwave' satellite images
"The positioning and monitoring of cyclonic phenomena rely notably on 'microwave' satellite images produced using technologies onboard American and European civil or military satellites," explains Météo-France.
These images, managed by NOAA, allow notably to know the "position of the system's center" or "the evolution of its structure," both "day and night."
Without this data, forecasts transmitted to the prefectures – which make decisions to alert populations and order evacuations – may therefore lack precision.
In the middle of the cyclone season, and while overseas territories are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, Météo-France remains reassuring: "Cyclone monitoring will continue to be fully ensured during this season in the Atlantic basin."
According to the French forecasting institute, there are "many other sources of data available to ensure the monitoring of cyclonic phenomena and to feed weather forecasting models."
While the "microwave" satellite images are affected by this suspension of data sharing from the United States, those "produced by American geostationary satellites" are not.
"Météo-France also has data from European Meteosat satellites, as well as its own network of weather radars," the forecasting institute explained.
(With newswires)
