US budget cuts risk creating blind spots in Earth monitoring systems that would imperil weather forecasting and climate research for years to come, the deputy chair of a key UN-backed climate monitoring body warned in an AFP interview.

Peter Thorne is the deputy chair of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), a little-known but crucial UN-backed programme that tracks and evaluates data on the atmosphere, land and ocean.

"In the 30 years I've been in this game, we've always seen incremental improvements in our ability to diagnose the Earth system," Thorne, who is also a professor at Ireland's Maynooth University, told AFP.

"This is possibly the first time we're looking at an acute reversal in our capability to monitor the Earth, just when we need it the most."

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