Good discussion! I was a part of that era, as well. Mike made some great points
that we were allowed to listen in, but to be fair, putting up a dish and
getting the data yourself became a lot easier and cheaper with NOAAport. If you
could save up 10 grand, you too could have NOAAport! At Northern Illinois
University, I’ll never forget seeing the first level3 images come across
unencrypted!
Much more importantly, NOAAport with UNIDATA opened up the door to rapid
science advancement in the United States. With UNIDATA leading the way with
Universities, research became viable to both the small and large meteorological
programs and institutions…and even to the public. It greatly accelerated
classroom learning that was changing so fast in the 1990s and 2000’s, it was
difficult to stay current…a trend that generally continues today. All of that
was and is being made possible to a large extent by NOAAport, and UNIDATA.
I won’t miss sweeping snow and ice off the dish, repointing/repeaking it after
a high wind event, 5G interference, inspection for wasp nests, checking the air
conditioner and heater in the “doghouse” where the server there relays the data
to our main servers, and replacing the receiver multiple times as speed
upgrades occurred. But despite it’s shortcomings, it cannot be understated that
it helped revolutionize research and academic meteorology in our country. If
another way to get the same (and much more!) data isn’t found, that great
benefit and legacy will go away, immediately. The complete lack of direction of
a viable NOAAport-like replacement for the private and public sector should
greatly concern everyone. You can have the best data in the world, but if you
can’t see it and use it, what good is it outside of the National Weather
Service? The already disgruntled public will NOT be happy, and it would make
our current situation considerably worse.
This needs to be THE #1 priority for the NWS, as in drop everything, the
building is on fire, and this needs to be solved RIGHT NOW. The maintenance and
the advancement of meteorological sciences, personal weather safety, and much
more in the United States is literally at stake here.
Gilbert Sebenste
Meteorology Support Analyst
[cid:image001.png@01DD3BCE.0028F990]
From: noaaport <noaaport-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Dan Vietor
Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2026 5:13 PM
To: Mike Zuranski <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: LDM <ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; NOAAPORT <noaaport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [External] Re: [noaaport] [ldm-users] The end of NOAAport/SBN
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of COD’s system. Do not click
links, open attachments, or respond with sensitive information unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
For those of us who remember back to the early 80s and the end of easy data,
this sounds very similar. When I started in college we had the FAA 604 feed and
Difax. That was it. But all you had to do to get it was get your local
telephone company to run you a line to the nearest WSFO and you could tap into
their feeds... for the cost of the landline.
But in the 82/83 timeframe that went away. This sent universities scrambling
for data. Enter Unidata and Alden Electronics. I remember installing the dish
in the back 40 at Purdue and getting the land line to the Geoscience building
working to transmit the data. Alden's satellite feed came with something new...
the Family of Services, which gave us a ton more data than what was on the FAA
circuit (DDS, PPS, and IDS) along with something new HDS, for model data. Boy
we struggled getting a cheap solution to handle that synchronous feed.
So this sounds all too familiar. Back then, we tapped into a WSFO to get data
until they said no. Today, we listen into NOAAPort and now that's going away.
We found a solution back in 1984. I remember working with Glenn Daivs and the
first versions of LDM to make Alden to the computer a reality. I suspect we'll
find one today. But it has me worried that the days of the convenient one stop
shop in NOAAPort are gone and we'll have to work with a new paradigm.
Dan.
On Thu, Sep 3, 2026 at 4:11 PM Mike Zuranski
<mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi Ryan,
On Thu, Sep 3, 2026 at 3:33 PM Ryan May <rmay@xxxxxxxx<mailto:rmay@xxxxxxxx>>
wrote:
...it is very unsettling due to the lack of clarity about how the NWS intends
to replace the open, realtime data distribution afforded by NOAAPORT.
Bare with me as there is a modest amount of hand-waving coming up...
I see this sentiment come up here and there, and say what you want about lack
of clarity with actionable statements, you'll get no argument from me that
those could improve. But what I think people are missing is NOAAPort was never
truly designed to serve anyone outside of NOAA. It is a service by NOAA, for
NOAA, that we were lucky enough to be able to tap into because it was clear-air
transmission. But "luck" is the wrong word... The work Unidata and other
parties laid out decades ago and have maintained since was to bridge that
service for Academia and others so not everyone had to get a giant dish in
their yards... but technically that's all anyone would need for NOAAPort is the
right kind of ear; that is the key element that is changing. NOAAPort was
always a private network, one technically available to all others but barred
for most.
AWIPS is moving to the cloud, the data is already there and with far superior
internet now compared to the '90s NOAA no longer needs that data feed to be in
the clear-air for themselves. Cutting partner access to data feeds was never
intended nor desired, just a result of no longer being transmitted in the
clear. Now while NOAA has maintained/improved the SBN tech for their own
offices & needs over the years, there was never any obligation for NOAA to make
its replacement clear-air and available to anyone with only the right hardware.
So now we can't simply listen in like we could before, but it's still a
private network just with hard access restrictions due to being on a public
internet.
The way I personally read the big picture here is Unidata had a seat at the
head of the table when the SBN/NOAAPort paradigm was established; it took a lot
of effort, conversations, collaborations but the result was a widely available
robust network of data coming from a NOAA feed, through the bridges that
Unidata has made and maintains, out to academia and beyond. Now that NOAA will
fully replace their previous network with one of a different design those
bridges will need to be rebuilt. But it was never an obligation for NOAA to
maintain those bridges to our communities, that is traditionally where Unidata
came in.
All of that is to say the following: I don't believe the NWS intends to
replace this real-time push network that we have gotten used to beyond their
own needs. It was never really open in the first place, and it is Unidata's
bridges and on-ramps that made it available to us at all. It will be up to us
to build and design new bridges, new on-ramps and new workflows for
ourselves... with NWS/NOAA's help of course. But waiting will be a death
sentence.
This will certainly be discussed during Unidata's Community Advisory Committee
(CAC) meeting next week. We're also happy to partner with others as we all try
to smoothly migrate to a post-NOAAPORT world.
I would like to request if you could get a representative from NODD to join the
CAC meetings moving forward. I know it's likely too short notice for that this
fall, but between more and more data sets moving to under their control, and
other opportunities that could come from their inclusion here, I think it would
be very helpful if that's possible.
Best,
-Mike
Cheers,
Ryan
-------
Dr. Ryan May
Deputy Director
NSF Unidata
Boulder, CO
On Tue, Sep 1, 2026 at 3:20 PM Sebenste, Gilbert
<sebensteg@xxxxxxx<mailto:sebensteg@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
If you haven’t heard, now you know. It says we are to wait for how the
information will be disseminated in the future. But what will that look like?
How will that impact me and our weather.cod.edu<http://weather.cod.edu/>
website? How will it affect all of you?
How long will we have a parallel test to make sure that we can get the data we
need and process it locally? How can I plan when I literally do not know what
to plan for?
I have so many questions….
NOUS41 KWBC 011655 PNSWSH
Public Information Statement 26-63
National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD
1255 PM EDT Tue Sep 1 2026
To:
From:
Subscribers: -NOAA Weather Wire Service -Emergency Managers Weather Information
Network -NOAAPort Other NWS Partners and Employees
George Jungbluth, Director Mission, Systems and Technology
Subject: Soliciting initial comments, through September 21, 2026, on planned
retirement of the Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN)/NOAAPort and NOAA Weather
Wire Service (NWWS) Satellite as early as August 31, 2027.
The NWS is modernizing its infrastructure and dissemination services by
transitioning to cloud-based services. This initiative will enhance
operational efficiency, increase reliability, and provide scalability for
future growth. As part of this modernization, the NWS will retire the Satellite
Broadcast Network (SBN), commonly referred to as NOAAPort. Retirement of the
SBN will also terminate the satellite-based NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS),
which uses SBN channel 201 to deliver data. The internet-based NWWS Open
Interface (NWWS-OI) will continue to operate. We are assembling information
about alternative data sources and will provide it as soon as possible.
NOAAPORT users are encouraged to provide feedback via this feedback form
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NOAAPortSBN2026 by September 21, 2026. While
the feedback form is preferred, users can also send comments and questions to:
nws.webfeedback@xxxxxxxx<mailto:nws.webfeedback@xxxxxxxx>
Stakeholder feedback will be used to help NWS plan the follow-on dissemination
systems to NOAAPort to ensure continuity of data and services to users. The
NWS will send an updated statement once the feedback is processed and we have
additional information to share. National Public Information Statements are
online at:
https://www.weather.gov/notification/
NNNN
Gilbert Sebenste
Meteorology Support Analyst
[cid:image001.png@01DD3BCE.0028F990]
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