The NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESIDIS) has awarded PlanetiQ a US$24.3m contract – said to be the largest commercial satellite weather data award ever.
Under the agreement, PlanetiQ – a provider of commercial weather and space weather data – will deliver 7,000 GNSS-RO profiles per day, including 500 enhanced high-signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) profiles, which are reportedly over seven times higher in quality than RO profiles delivered by other commercial providers, as well as 2,500 low-latency total electron content (TEC) tracks daily. Data deliveries began last Thursday.
GNSS-RO data from PlanetiQ provides precise vertical profiles of the atmosphere across the globe, over land and sea, and in cloudy and clear conditions.
The 500 SNR profiles per day are especially valuable in the lower troposphere, where measurement and forecast accuracy are often most challenging, enabling actionable decisions and operations planning with reduced risk, according to the company.
TEC data is predicted to strengthen NOAA’s space weather monitoring and forecasting capabilities.
The new contract represents an over threefold increase in PlanetiQ’s data deliveries compared with its most recent NOAA award, which provided 2,200 profiles per day, and adds the enhanced SNR and TEC tracks as new products.
Although NOAA is the procuring agency of the GNSS-RO data, the data will also be used by NASA, the US Air Force, the US Navy and international government weather agencies for operational and research purposes.
“This award demonstrates NOAA’s confidence in our ability to deliver both the quantity and quality of data needed to advance weather and space weather forecasting,” said Ira Scharf, chief executive officer of PlanetiQ. “We are proud to expand our support for NOAA and its mission to protect life and property.”
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