Data, analytics and space services specialist Spire Global been awarded a US$4m contract to leverage hyperspectral microwave sensing (HyMS) technology to enhance the value and accuracy of NOAA’s numerical weather predictions (NWP).
Issued by NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) department, the two-year Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) will fund Spire’s development of a HyMS in-orbit demonstration sensor on a 16U satellite.
The original objective of NOAA’s BAA was to develop a HyMS prototype in an airborne or balloon-based platform. Because of Spire’s ability to provide high-quality commercial data for NOAA’s weather forecast models and the company’s existing work with RAL Space and the UK government to develop HyMS, NOAA will be able to harness Spire’s expertise from space. The HyMS instrument is a new, advanced millimeter wave technology that delivers microwave sounding information to measure atmospheric moisture.
Kamal Arafeh, senior vice president of global sales, Spire, said, “In this era of extreme weather, the need to leverage data from space to deliver more accurate weather forecasts has never been more critical. NOAA’s continued priority to collaborate with Earth observation companies allows us to better predict, adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. We are thrilled to expand our work with NOAA to develop a payload that will collect additional near real-time weather observations and improve measurements within and beneath clouds.”
Spire has been awarded a total of four NOAA contracts in FY22, valued at US$23.6m. While previous NOAA contracts have focused on the purchase of radio occultation profiles, the HyMS contract is the first award to utilize Spire’s pioneering Space Services (S3) model.
With a fully deployed constellation of more than 100 satellites, Spire is the largest producer of radio occultation data and offers a large portfolio of current weather, historical weather data, and weather forecasts solutions.
Spire Global will be exhibiting at Booth 3035 at this year’s Meteorological Technology World Expo 2022, taking place on October 11, 12, 13, in Hall 7.1, Porte de Versailles, Paris, France. Don’t miss out on the show of the year – register now for your free entry pass and visit the website for the full exhibitor list and all the latest information.
