NASA responds to Turkish claims of superiority, says it is not involved in weather forecasts

WASHINGTON, DC

NASA has responded to remarks by Turkish Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroğlu, who raised eyebrows by claiming that Turkey’s technology on meteorological weather forecasts is more advanced than that of the space agency. 

Eroğlu had commented on the alleged inaccuracy of NASA’s weather forecasts, but in response to a question from daily Hürriyet, NASA spokesperson Sean Potter stressed that the agency does not even conduct research on weather forecasts.

“NASA does not control weather satellites and does not forecast weather. That falls under the responsibility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA],” Potter said, adding that the report criticized by Eroğlu was not an official study by NASA. 

After being questioned over a recent study stating that the ongoing draught in the eastern Mediterranean was the worst in the past 900 years, Eroğlu had described NASA’s technology as “inadequate” and said Turkey was “better at weather forecasts.”

“What does NASA think it is? We are better than them,” Eroğlu said during a discussion at parliament. 

“They might have satellites but we have our Göktürk,” he added, referring to Turkey’s civil and military observation satellite.