GEOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS:

COVID-19 is having an unexpected impact on weather forecasting. "For years, thousands of airliners and cargo planes have been involved in a side gig that few passengers or package shippers have been privy to: gathering and transmitting weather data that’s then used for improving weather forecasts issued worldwide. To gather crucial information for operating the plane itself, such as determining its airspeed and motion relative to the ground, instruments on an airplane’s nose — they resemble pointy, metal needles sticking out of the fuselage, pointed forward, into the airstream — measure the characteristics of the air mass around them. ... Government programs run in the United States, such as the efforts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with international agencies and private companies have tapped into some of this data to pipe it into computer models that help meteorologists forecast the weather. This includes the National Weather Service’s Global Forecast System, or GFS model, and the world-leading European model, run by the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, England. At the global level, networks that vacuum up data from planes flying in Europe, Asia and South America have helped to ensure an ever-growing flow of data that’s benefited modeling centers worldwide, boosting model skill and forecast accuracy. However, with the paucity of flights in the air now, the pandemic has disrupted that data flow, turning it from a fire hose to more of a trickle." Globally, data collection is down 75-80%, but in the Southern Hemisphere, 90% of measurements provided by aircraft have gone missing. Meteorologist are unsure what impact the loss of data will have on weather modeling and forecasting, but the issue is "potentially problematic" given that this year's Atlantic hurricane season, which officially started yesterday, is expected to be busier than average. www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/05/12/weather-forecasting-coronavirus-flights/