Happy Friday Everyone,
I submitted comments regarding the NOAAport/SBN retirement and thought I
would share an idea with you. However, I'll first mention that Ryan at NWS
replied with a link to an RFI on the replacement. Perhaps it's been shared
here but I'd not seen it, so FYI.
https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/b2dc823e91cf445db344df6047eeb647/view
My comments sent to the RFC were mainly concerns about what many of us
already know: reliability, compatibility, migration path, documentation,
real 24x7 support, etc.
I'll now paste in that idea. Perhaps someone has already considered this
and there is the possibility that it would not work, but I think it or
something like it could help bring many of us (including me) down from
panic mode.
Jared
==
There is an avenue which I would strongly urge my NOAA colleagues to
explore: years ago some weather community colleagues in Hawaii (I believe
Hawaii EM or University of Hawaii, if memory serves) tested broadcasting
weather data much like NOAAport (their tests used EMWIN datasets) but over
the Internet using IPv6 multicast, rather than IPv4 over satellite. At the
time many Internet equipment vendors and networks did not support IPv6
multicast but now many if not most do and NOAA is in fact moving rapidly
to IPv6 for its own operations, as I've learned from my NOAA colleagues
here in Norman.
It turns out that NOAAport is, at its core, a set of IPv4 multicast
streams which merely use satellite as the transmission medium. If that
IPv4 multicast was turned into IPv6 multicast (there are multiple ways to
do this including at the server, router, and service levels), that could
be sent over NWAVE to NOAA entities, over Internet2 to university and
research partners, as well as easily made available on major cloud
providers' networks. Both Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform
support routing of IPv6 multicast on to customer VPC (Virtual Private
Cloud, i.e. each customer's private network within that cloud provider's
system). For example, if I had an IPv6 multicast stream of data from NOAA
on my existing Amazon VPC using the AWS Transit Gateway service, I could
set up a server VM running Linux, convert the IPv6 back to IPv4 multicast
with one of several existing, high-performance-but-lightweight Linux
kernel modules, and then use the existing, legacy Unidata LDM NOAAport
software *without modifications or code overhauls* to ingest exactly as
we've been receiving over satellite all these years.
Perhaps multicast over terrestrial networks (which would avoid the
bandwidth cost and load issues with unicast IP) might be a way to migrate
users off the satellite feeds without complete re-architecture of their
setups. This might also serve as a bridge to use of the other data
transmission technologies such as the widely discussed cloud options while
they are still being developed and tested.
==
On Fri, 4 Sep 2026, Mullenax, Robert R. (WFF-820.0)[PERATON INC] wrote:
I started at Texas A&M in 1982. We had 604 and Difax. At Universal Weather in
1987 then CSBF (NSBF back then) in 1991 we had
Alden and Kavouras. We had a C-band feed and KU-band feed from Alden at NSBF. I
don’t remember anymore what was on the KU-band,
but even thick clouds (no precip) and we would lose data…which speaks to
Stonie’s comments on KU-band.
Interesting times ahead…
Robert Mullenax
Meteorologist
Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility
Peraton
1510 E. FM 3224
Palestine, TX 75803
903-723-8037
robert.r.mullenax@xxxxxxxx
From: ldm-users <ldm-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Dan Vietor
Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2026 4:13 PM
To: Mike Zuranski <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: LDM <ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; NOAAPORT <noaaport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [BULK] Re: [ldm-users] [noaaport] The end of NOAAport/SBN
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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> wrote:
Hi Ryan,
On Thu, Sep 3, 2026 at 3:33 PM Ryan May <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> 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 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
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
[IMAGE]
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Jared P Bostic
OCS/Mesonet Operations