The U.S. Department of Defense will now continue sharing key data collected by three weather satellites that help forecasters track hurricanes. Meteorologists and scientists had warned of risks to accurate and timely storm tracking without the information when officials made plans to stop providing it beyond the end of this month.

Defense officials had planned to cut off distribution of microwave data^[1] from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, jointly run with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, by the end of June. At the time, NOAA said the cutoff was said “to mitigate a significant cybersecurity risk" while the U.S. Navy said the program didn't meet "information technology modernization requirements.” The discontinuation was postponed for one month^[2].

In a notice on Wednesday, officials said there would be no interruption at all.

The Navy said in a statement that its Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center “had planned to phase out the data” as part of modernization efforts. "But after feedback from government partners, officials found a way to meet modernization goals while keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026.”

The data is used by scientists, researchers and forecasters, including meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center. It gives crucial information about storms that can’t be gleaned from conventional visible or infrared satellites.

“This satellite data enables hurricane forecasters and their computer models to peer inside a hurricane’s structure, offering vital insight," said Union of Concerned Scientists science fellow Marc Alessi. "Make no mistake: this data not only improves hurricane forecasting accuracy, but could make the difference between whether communities evacuate or not ahead of an approaching hurricane.”

Other microwave data would have been available with this cutoff, but only about half as much, experts said — increasing the chance that forecasters would miss certain aspects of storms.

A spokesperson for NOAA said the agency will continue to have access to the data for the program’s lifespan and noted that it is just one data set “in a robust suite of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools" that the National Weather Service has at its disposal to “ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve.”

The news had initially raised scientific eyebrows amid hurricane season^[3], which usually peaks from mid-August to mid-October. Climate change, worsened by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal, have driven storms to become more frequent, severe and deadly.

“The last-minute reprieve has hurricane forecasters breathing a sigh of relief,” said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections. “Loss of the microwave satellite data would have made it far more likely that timely warnings of dangerous and potentially deadly episodes of hurricane rapid intensification events being delayed by up to 12 hours.”

He added the restoration of the data is also good news for scientists tracking Arctic sea ice loss^[4]. Images and microwave satellite data can estimate how much of the ocean is covered by ice, according to NOAA^[5].

NOAA and the NWS have been the subject of several cuts throughout President Donald Trump's second term.

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Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards^[6] for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org^[7].

Nearly two months after President Donald Trump took the extraordinary step of deploying the National Guard^[1] to Los Angeles to quell public unrest over immigration raids, the Pentagon on Wednesday announced that it was withdrawing more than a thousand troops.

The departure of about 1,350 members of the National Guard, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, represents just the latest rollback of troops from L.A. this month since more than 5,000 National Guard members and Marines were deployed to the city in June.

Sean Parnell, chief spokesman for the Pentagon, said that approximately 250 California Guard members would remain in L.A. to protect federal agents and buildings.

"We greatly appreciate the support of the more than 5,000 Guardsmen and Marines who mobilized to Los Angeles to defend Federal functions against the rampant lawlessness occurring in the city," Parnell said in a statement.

Mayor Karen Bass, who had dubbed the deployment^[2] an "armed occupation," was quick to celebrate the troops departure.

"Another win for Los Angeles," Bass said^[3] on X Wednesday night. "We will continue this pressure until ALL troops are out of L.A."

The troops' presence in Los Angeles -- and their role of protecting federal agents conducting immigration raids -- was fiercely contested. President Trump said the troops were necessary to maintain order as the administration ramped up its immigration raids and protesters covered downtown buildings in graffiti, set Waymos on fire and clashed with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

But many of California's key Democratic leaders said there was no need for federal troops in the city: local law enforcement could handle the protesters, they said, and the presence of federal troops in highly militarized gear only inflamed tension in the region. They also argued that federal officials had deployed the troops illegally.

Just a day after the first convoys of National Guard troops rumbled into L.A. on June 8, Gov. Gavin Newsom sued federal officials, saying that the deployment exceeded federal authority and violated the 10th amendment in an "unprecedented usurpation" of state power. Newsom also complained that the deployment had diverted the California National Guard from critical duties such as combating wildfires and interrupting the drug trade at the U.S.-Mexico border and across California.

His office released a statement responding to the latest draw down Thursday.

"President Trump is realizing that his political theater backfired. This militarization was always unnecessary and deeply unpopular," the statement said. "The President must do the right thing to end this illegal militarization now because the economic and societal impacts are dire. The women and men of our military deserve more than to be used as props in the federal government's propaganda machine."

Over the weeks, as the L.A. protests subsided, the troops did not appear to have a clear role and many appeared to be bored^[4]. By July, a source within Newsom's office with knowledge of the military operation told The Times that only about 3% of the troops were taking part in daily missions.

"There's not much to do," one Marine told The Times as he stood guard earlier this month outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood.

The majority of National Guard members were left largely milling about the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos in an operation that the Pentagon had estimated would cost about $134 million.

On July 15, the Pentagon withdrew nearly 2,000 California National Guard soldiers^[5] from L.A. and on July 21 it withdrew 700 active-duty Marines^[6].

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