The union of weather and climate monitoring is not a happy one – and a US attempt at matchmaking means we may miss out on important climate data.
In 1994, the US government decided to replace its separate climate and weather instruments with a fleet of satellites holding both. The was intended to save money, but by late 2005, it was more than 25 per cent over its $6.5 billion budget. This triggered cutbacks that eliminated two of the six planned satellites and delayed the launch of the first replacement climate instruments by five…
