NOAA is the country's premier climate science agency and is the one responsible for all those beautiful and detailed full-color images of everything from the breaking off of a piece of the Antarctic ice shelf to the GOES-16 images of storm systems pounding California.
Without the accurate and detailed imagery sent to Earth from NOAA satellites, we will be living in a much more frightening world because without being forewarned about coming climate events, we will have little chance to be prepared. The
Washington Post is reporting that Trump is seeking cuts in funding to not only NOAA research programs but to its satellite programs.
Former Obama NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco told the Washington Post, "Cutting NOAA's satellite budget will compromise NOAA's mission of keeping Americans safe from extreme weather and providing forecasts that allow businesses and citizens to make smart plans."
The cuts include almost $513 million, or 22 percent of the current funding for NOAA's satellite division. Additionally, there is a cut of $216 million, or 26 percent, from NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. NOAA is a part of the Commerce Department, which in itself is going to suffer an 18 percent cut in funding.
In the four-page budget memo, the Commerce Department was asked how much it would cost to lay off employees, and at the same time, said those employees remaining would get an 1.9 percent raise in 2018. Basically, it requested estimates for terminating leases and government “property disposal.”
For all you weather and climate followers reading this story - Here's a short, quick look at something that might disappear if Trump is allowed to have his way. I think we will all be poorer if this happens.
Meet Hurricane Matthew.
NOAA
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 13 (GOES-13) captured this image of Hurricane Sandy at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (17:45 Universal Time) on October 28, 2012. A line of clouds from a continental weather system runs south to north along the Appalachians, approaching from the west to meet the offshore storm.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon with data courtesy of the NASA/NOAA GOES Project Scien
