Bill Proenza isn’t the only one applying pressure to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take hurricane forecasting more seriously. U.S. Rep. Ron Klein also is breathing down the giant agency’s neck, demanding a “comprehensive contingency plan” should the QuikSCAT satellite fail.
That is the satellite, you’ll recall, that forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County depend on to develop accurate predictions of storm paths. The problem is that it was launched in 1999 with a designed lifespan of only five years. While it continues to function, it could die at any moment. That could result in forecast accuracy deteriorating by 16 percent when storms are three days out, hurricane center officials say.
In the meantime, NOAA has no intention of coughing up the $375 million to $400 million to put a replacement in orbit.
Klein, a Boca Raton Democrat, said he wants to find a viable solution, preferably a new satellite. He said NOAA’s plans to implement alternative technologies are not adequate. Among those are Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometers, which are to be mounted on two Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft. The instruments measure surface wind speeds and rainfall rates.
In a May 17 letter to Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., NOAA’s top administrator, Klein wrote, “… I am not satisfied with the alternative solutions that been provided to me to compensate for the eventual loss of the QuikSCAT satellite … I have seen only a patchwork plan to supplement QuikSCAT’s critical data.”
Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center, last week ripped into his superiors at NOAA for placing a higher priority on image-building than hurricane research.
Before that, Proenza expressed concern that there were no plans to replace QuikSCAT, even though it would take four to five years to do so.
Now Klein is requesting Lautenbacher’s office provide both short-term and long-term alternatives.
“As a member of Congress with over 70 miles of coastline in South Florida, I am concerned greatly with any loss or setback in the accuracy of hurricane forecasting,” Klein wrote in the letter.