The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has started soliciting industry input on commercial satellite environmental data and related observational capabilities that are currently or planned to be launched into orbit from fiscal year 2026 through FY 2032.
According to a notice published Friday, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, or NESDIS, will accept comments and questions regarding the request for information through March 27.
Capability statements are due April 15.
According to NOAA, NESDIS will use the RFI responses to inform the commercial data program of industry capabilities for commercial weather data pilot projects, operational data purchases and other applications in the space and terrestrial weather areas.
Scope of Requested Information
According to the RFI, NOAA intends to reinforce current capabilities with commercially provided space-based data. It is interested in product areas listed in the NESDIS Level Requirements document, such as atmospheric temperature, tropical cyclone characteristics, fires, ionosphere and magnetosphere.
The agency is also interested in Global Navigation Satellite Systems, or GNSS, radio occultation capabilities, particularly in low latency, highly accurate GNSS RO-derived ionospheric products such as scintillation and total electron content. It intends to collect these data from various orbits and local time windows.
The notice states that NESDIS acquires GNSS-RO data through the Radio Occultation Data Buy 2, or RODB-2, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract vehicle.
