Release of Scientific Model Delayed Due to Partial Government Shutdown

Release of Scientific Model Delayed Due to Partial Government Shutdown

On January 9, 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that release of an update to the World Magnetic Model (WMM) would be delayed due to the partial federal government shutdown.

A joint product of the U.S. and UK governments, the WMM forms the basis of military and other navigation systems (including GPS). The current version of the WMM was released in 2015 and was intended to remain in place until 2020. However, due to unexpected shifts in the earth’s magnetic field, an emergency update was required. That update was scheduled to take place on January 15, 2019, but had to be delayed as the NOAA scientists working on the update were furloughed during the partial federal government shutdown.