Let’s keep it a surprise…
That is the only explanation for why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) would not be replacing a hurricane tracking satellite that an internal memo reveals could fail at any moment. AHN has more:
The replacement for the QuikScat satellite will be launched in 2016, yet experts say if the current satellite fails, experts would be left without the tools they need to predict and track hurricanes.
While other tools do exist, Bill Proenza, director of the NHC in Miami, Florida says that without the accuracy afforded to meteorologists by the QuikScat, they “may have to err on the side of caution” in future forecasts, meaning “more people disrupted, and more impact on the economy.”
Proenza explains, “We have to err on the side of the protection of life. And that’s how we would handle it.”
According to the letter, obtained by the Associated Press, a failure of the QuikScat satellite would hurt the accuracy of two-day forecasts by 10 percent and three-day forecasts by 16 percent.
After the 2004 and 2005 storms, shouldn’t someone have already been prepping the launch of a new satellite? Geez.
[tags]Miami, Hurricane, NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, NHC, Bill Proenza, QuikScat
June 15th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Apparently no one learned their lesson on the potential horrors that hurricanes can bring. Quite shocking.
June 20th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
[...] Citizens really isn’t equipped to handle another big storm. Couple this sad fact with the aging satellites used to track these storms and we’ve got the recipe for anarchy on our [...]
June 26th, 2007 at 9:08 am
[...] I am just glad the satellites are picking it up and the forecasters are able to alert us to it. [...]
May 28th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Very interesting post… Would like to use some of this on my blog. Is that ok or not?