6 ms·

My hunch is that the location of the satellites can be deduced from the weather data. These satellites would be a target in a time of war.

3-5105 1y ago
Satellites using sun-synchronous orbits can circle the Earth multiple times in a day.Compared with a stationary observer on the ground,they are moving at a relatively fast speed.Therefore,as long as they delay the release of observational data by a random time period,there won't be this issue.Only geostationary satellites would have this problem. But a bigger problem comes before the above issue:most of the current human meteorological satellites do not have stealth capabilities.You can see them directly.Perhaps your idea will become a practical problem when satellite stealth technology matures. This is a translation.
- skiboyec 1y ago
  I did not see your comment before I left mine! But yes the second half makes sense. I do think you might able to deduce the orbit even if the data release is delayed by a random time period. If you’re a foreign adversary that has its own satellites, you can measure the same information from a known orbit. Then one could compare the published data with one’s known dataset to deduce things like the angle from which the data was measured.
skiboyec 1y ago
Hmm I think I’m wrong. From what I can tell satellites , especially those in LEO can be optically tracked pretty easily
- sorcerer-mar 1y ago
  Yeah I was going to say: you can also know where satellites are by looking at them. Obviously we're not publishing weather data from the ones with important natsec equipment onboard.
dmix 1y ago
Most plausible reason. National security hawks have always been extremely protective of intelligence even when the risk is tiny. Probably some DoD people (or person) wanted to keep it closed and new hawkish leadership let them do it. Who knows, the Navy hasn't released any statement beyond "cyber security risks" so there's only politics to fill in the blanks. It seems to be this agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Numerical_Meteorology_and_Oceanography_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Numerical_Meteorology_an... Who recently got a supercomputer system https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/local_news/a-new-supercomputer-in-monterey-boosts-the-navy-s-ability-to-predict-the-weather/article_80ca2b3e-6b08-11ef-94de-4f48b000eb07.html https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/local_news/a-new-supe...
- bix6 1y ago
  So why does The King get to tweet pictures from our spy satellites then?
- justinrubek 1y ago
  It's not even close to being a plausible reason when project 2025 states that this needs to happen.
gpm 1y ago
The location of the satellites is public knowledge. Satellites are trivially tracked from the ground - the amateur community does this whenever someone tries to keep the location of one secret: https://www.popsci.com/zuma-spy-satellite-amateur-astronomer/ https://www.popsci.com/zuma-spy-satellite-amateur-astronomer... They also don't exactly move much, it takes precious fuel to change a satellites orbit.

3-5105 1y ago

Satellites using sun-synchronous orbits can circle the Earth multiple times in a day.Compared with a stationary observer on the ground,they are moving at a relatively fast speed.Therefore,as long as they delay the release of observational data by a random time period,there won't be this issue.Only geostationary satellites would have this problem. But a bigger problem comes before the above issue:most of the current human meteorological satellites do not have stealth capabilities.You can see them directly.Perhaps your idea will become a practical problem when satellite stealth technology matures. This is a translation.

skiboyec 1y ago
I did not see your comment before I left mine! But yes the second half makes sense. I do think you might able to deduce the orbit even if the data release is delayed by a random time period. If you’re a foreign adversary that has its own satellites, you can measure the same information from a known orbit. Then one could compare the published data with one’s known dataset to deduce things like the angle from which the data was measured.

skiboyec 1y ago

Hmm I think I’m wrong. From what I can tell satellites , especially those in LEO can be optically tracked pretty easily

sorcerer-mar 1y ago
Yeah I was going to say: you can also know where satellites are by looking at them. Obviously we're not publishing weather data from the ones with important natsec equipment onboard.

dmix 1y ago

Most plausible reason. National security hawks have always been extremely protective of intelligence even when the risk is tiny. Probably some DoD people (or person) wanted to keep it closed and new hawkish leadership let them do it. Who knows, the Navy hasn't released any statement beyond "cyber security risks" so there's only politics to fill in the blanks. It seems to be this agency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Numerical_Meteorology_and_Oceanography_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Numerical_Meteorology_an... Who recently got a supercomputer system https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/local_news/a-new-supercomputer-in-monterey-boosts-the-navy-s-ability-to-predict-the-weather/article_80ca2b3e-6b08-11ef-94de-4f48b000eb07.html https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/local_news/a-new-supe...

bix6 1y ago
So why does The King get to tweet pictures from our spy satellites then?
justinrubek 1y ago
It's not even close to being a plausible reason when project 2025 states that this needs to happen.

gpm 1y ago

The location of the satellites is public knowledge. Satellites are trivially tracked from the ground - the amateur community does this whenever someone tries to keep the location of one secret: https://www.popsci.com/zuma-spy-satellite-amateur-astronomer/ https://www.popsci.com/zuma-spy-satellite-amateur-astronomer... They also don't exactly move much, it takes precious fuel to change a satellites orbit.