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BAMOS August 2025
15 and the National Oceans Service. If these cuts are approved, they would cut NOAA funding by about 25 %.
The data and modelling capabilities at risk include:
• Restricted use of data from US defence force weather satellites from July 31 onward. Australia uses this data to monitor weather, climate and oceans. The data has also been used for Australian forecast models.
• Funding cut to the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System. This will affect the Global Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, which produces key components of weather and climate models used by Australia’ s Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO.
• The Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory is scheduled to be closed. Australia has used this lab’ s data to declare every El Niño and La Niña for the past 30 years.
• Planned shutdown of the Global Monitoring Laboratory, including the closure of Hawaii’ s Mauna Loa Observatory and Antarctic air monitoring. This will increase Australia’ s dependence on its own atmospheric monitoring site at Cape Grim in Tasmania.
• Funding cuts for ARGO floats and ocean drifting buoys. Until now, the US has funded more than half of the ARGO robotic floats active in the oceans. These floats produce data crucial to Australia’ s weather and seasonal forecasts.
• Plans to end the NOAA Cooperative Institutes, which include collaborations with Australian researchers. These cuts have not yet been confirmed. If approved, they will massively disrupt global advances in weather, climate and ocean knowledge.
• Planned cuts to Antarctic ice and atmosphere monitoring, which would affect collaborative Antarctic research and operations.
• US withdrawal from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and UNESCO( including the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission), and uncertainty around future support for the United Nations and its World Meteorological Organization( WMO). At present, the US is the WMO’ s largest funder.
Maintaining Australian capabilities is not a given
Making accurate forecasts requires high-quality global observations.
Forecasts will inevitably get worse if data sources are restricted or stopped. During extreme weather events, this will pose real risk to life.
The loss of experienced US staff could also lead to a stagnation in forecasting advances, especially on extreme weather. Many Australian scientists working on forecast improvements collaborate with US colleagues.
If some or all of these cuts take place, the flow-on effects for Australian meteorology and climate science will be substantial.
In response, Australian leaders should:
1. Assess the immediate risks to Australia’ s weather, climate and ocean capabilities from these changes in the US.
2. Assess where Australia can best lift national capabilities in research, modelling and observations.
3. Expand data sharing and collaboration with China, Japan, South Korea, India and the European Union. Each of these has established satellite observing programs which cover Australia.
4. Strengthen investment and partnership in international programs such as as the WMO, the EU’ s Copernicus Program, the World Climate Research Program and the EU Horizon program.
The future
America’ s sweeping cuts to science will have large ripple effects. Losing these capabilities and expertise will be a significant setback for researchers in the US, Australia and worldwide. The cuts come at a time when extreme weather and damage from climate change is intensifying. Early warnings save lives.
To meet the ever more urgent need for reliable forecasting and modelling, Australia can no longer rely on US data and expertise. It’ s time to boost local capabilities and expand vital alliances.
Jas Chambers and Rob Vertessy( Melbourne University) provided initial inspiration.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Maintaining Australian capabilities is not a given
This map shows which nations contribute to the global ARGO float program. The US( dark green dots) contributes over half of all sensors. OceanOPS, CC BY-NC-ND