{"id":826503,"date":"2025-02-12T11:13:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T17:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/noaa-sees-new-applications-for-commercial-weather-data\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T11:13:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T17:13:35","slug":"noaa-sees-new-applications-for-commercial-weather-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/noaa-sees-new-applications-for-commercial-weather-data\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA sees new applications for commercial weather data"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tomorrow-S1 and Tomorrow-S2, Tomorrow.io’s microwave sounder satellites, were launched in August 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Credit:<\/span> Tomorrow.io<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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NEW ORLEANS \u2013 In addition to purchasing global datasets, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plans to pay a premium for observations of oil spills or other events.<\/p>\n

For oil spills, the spot-market approach \u201cis inevitable, but not yet practical,\u201d Steve Volz, assistant administrator for\u00a0NOAA\u2019s\u00a0Satellite and Information Service, told SpaceNews <\/em>at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting here.<\/p>\n

To date, NOAA has purchased radio occultation soundings primarily through contracts that give the government free and open access. As a result, NOAA can integrate the commercial observations with government data and share the results widely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntroducing restricted data into that trade space would complicate things immensely,\u201d Volz said. \u201cSo we are sticking with our full, open approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOAA officials recognize, though, that the approach may limit the ability of commercial satellite operators to sell data and imagery to other customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cObservation satellites are expensive,\u201d Volz said. \u201cHow do you monetize that information?\u201d<\/p>\n

Spot Market<\/h4>\n

Going forward, NOAA will continue to acquire global datasets and respond to events by purchasing data on the spot market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at these niche market observations, whether it\u2019s fire detection, greenhouse gas measuring or oil spill detection, I don\u2019t need the global perspective,\u201d Volz said. \u201cI want observations over the oil spill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional datasets may be geographically focused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may buy imagery or microwave data that is applicable for Florida,\u201d Volz said. \u201cI\u2019ll pay premium dollars for it, and you can sell your other data to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through its purchases, NOAA would validate and characterize commercial data, potentially enhancing their value for other customers and applications. Showing the commercial data works well in conjunction with government observations, provides additional value, Volz said.<\/p>\n

NOAA\u2019s Systems Architecture Engineering Group is working with the agency\u2019s Commercial Data Program to determine how to purchase limited datasets.<\/p>\n

Microwave Data <\/h4>\n

Congress appropriated $27.5 million in the 2024 budget for NOAA commercial weather data purchases. Through that program, NOAA has purchased radio occultation data for numerical weather prediction models and microwave soundings to assess their quality and utility.<\/p>\n

Commercial observations also will be purchased in conjunction with Near Earth Orbit Network<\/a>, or NEON, NOAA\u2019s next generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be looking at buying hyperspectral microwave sounding capability because we see that as very complimentary to being able to meet our mission,\u201d Irene Parker, NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service deputy assistant administrator for systems, said Jan. 13 at the weather conference. <\/p>\n

Congress also appropriated about $5 million for NOAA\u2019s purchase of commercial radio occultation data for space weather models.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we are working with industry to design instruments for Space weather Observations at L1, we are also going to be working with companies to procure radio occultation data to help us in space weather,\u201d Parker said. \u201cWe see it as very much a complimentary relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDebra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Debra earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master\u2019s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is a recipient…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow-S1 and Tomorrow-S2, Tomorrow.io’s microwave sounder satellites, were launched in August 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Tomorrow.io NEW ORLEANS \u2013 In addition to purchasing global datasets, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plans to pay a premium for observations of oil spills or other events. For oil spills, the spot-market approach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":826504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34499,4724],"tags":[20940,15373],"class_list":{"0":"post-826503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-applications","8":"category-commercial","9":"tag-applications","10":"tag-commercial"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}