I heard a report on NPR today about how the lack of weather measurements from docked cruise ships is hurting our ability to measure weather conditions in the ocean, and thus the accuracy of weather reports. Couldn't find it on the internet yet, but found this, which discusses the same problem because of fewer airplane flights, where weather measurements are also made. Eg., hurricane predictions will be less accurate.
29 April 2020
The drop in airline operations across the US and around the world has had an impact on weather reporting, particular with the input flight crews make to the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Observing System, part of the World Weather Watch program. The WMO provides part of the architecture through which 193 member countries can build weather forecasts as well as monitor atmospheric and climate conditions.
According to a press release from the WMO, “some parts of the observing system are already affected. Most notably the significant decrease in air traffic has had a clear impact. In-flight measurements of ambient temperature and wind speed and direction are a very important source of information for both weather prediction and climate monitoring.”
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