Tomorrow.io has unveiled the full instrument architecture for DeepSky, its next-generation early warning satellite constellation designed to address a global shortage of atmospheric weather data. Each DeepSky spacecraft will carry five instruments: a precipitation radar, hyperspectral microwave sounders, infrared and visible imaging, GNSS radio occultation and GNSS reflectometry.
The company says roughly 71% of Earth is covered by ocean with little to no ground-based weather radar, leaving what it estimates at more than five billion people outside radar coverage. Storms frequently intensify over these unmonitored waters, it says, giving coastal communities and supply chains limited warning of extreme weather.
Each DeepSky spacecraft is larger than current smallsat sounders, enabling all five instruments to fly on a single bus and observe the same atmospheric column simultaneously. The precipitation radar delivers 3D reflectivity profiles inside cloud systems, resolving rain location, melting layers and updraft heights. The hyperspectral microwave sounders measure vertical temperature and moisture profiles through cloud cover. Infrared and visible imaging captures cloud tops and surface thermal dynamics, including wildfire detection. GNSS radio occultation provides cloud-independent vertical atmospheric profiles used to calibrate the rest of the constellation, and GNSS reflectometry measures ocean surface wind speeds within a storm’s core, an area where conventional scatterometers and optical imagers struggle.
According to Tomorrow.io, the instruments’ effects compound: radio occultation anchors calibration, the radar resolves rain structure, imagers capture surface thermal activity, and reflectometry reads ocean winds through heavy precipitation, together providing cross-verified data intended to train next-generation AI forecasting models.
“The people with the least warning are the people with the most to lose,” said Shimon Elkabetz, CEO and co-founder of Tomorrow.io. “A storm strengthening over open ocean is watched far less closely than one approaching a wealthy coastline, and that difference is measured in human lives … We call DeepSky an early warning constellation because that is the core mission: deliver clear, actionable atmospheric intelligence to decision-makers early enough to make the right decisions.”
“A forecast can only be as good as what was actually measured,” said Rei Goffer, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Tomorrow.io. “Across most of the planet, nobody ever built the instruments to do the measuring, forcing legacy models to fill in the blanks. DeepSky is Tomorrow.io taking direct physical measurements from space to power predictive models, eliminate blind spots and empower national weather services and enterprise leaders to act with confidence.”
DeepSky is intended to support both national meteorological services and commercial sectors including aviation, agriculture, energy, insurance and supply chain operations.
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