NOAA’s has awarded a $24 million contract to the weather data firm PlanetiQ for satellite data services, the largest contract for such services ever granted to a private-sector firm, the Colorado-based company said Tuesday.
The contract, issued by NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, or NESDIS, requires PlanetiQ to deliver 7,000 atmospheric “profiles” daily from the company’s Earth-orbiting satellites, including 500 “enhanced high-signal-to-noise ratio profiles” that are seven times higher in quality than other satellite imaging technologies, according to the company. The firm also will provide 2,500 “low-latency total electron content (TEC) tracks” to help monitor and forecast solar and geophysical events.
The award is the latest in NOAA’s Commercial Data Program’s Radio Occultation Data Buy 2 (RODB-2), the company said.
The profiles will provide NOAA with detailed atmospheric information covering the entire globe and will not be affected by changing weather conditions, the company said.
