Muon Space and Tomorrow.io, two startups in the space business, will take part in the initiative.
In Washington The U.S. Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit stated on October 26 that they had chosen five companies to assist in creating weather models utilising information from satellites, airborne, and ground sensors.
Contracts were awarded to Muon Space, Tomorrow.io, Windborne Systems, Greensight, and NextGen Federal Systems to show how commercial data can be integrated into the U.S. Air Force Weather Virtual Private Cloud.
The U.S. military relies on weather models developed by the Air Force 557th Weather Wing, the branch’s main meteorology facility, to plan operations and conduct long-term study into the effects of climate change.
The businesses will need to demonstrate that “data sources and interfaces are compatible with the Air Force’s Weather Virtual Private Cloud,” according to DIU, a Defense Department organisation established to engage with commercial IT industry.
According to DIU, DoD will use the commercial data for analyses of climate change and weather forecasts. Vendors for this prototype were chosen on the basis of their capacity to deliver data from outside the United States’ continental territory.
According to DIU, data gathered during this pilot study will be made available for tests and research by the entire U.S. government.
According to John Dreher, the materiel leader for weather systems at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, “with the aid of DIU, we’re speeding the delivery of commercial weather sensor technologies to fulfil the operational need.”
Muon Space and Tomorrow.io, two businesses in the space sector, will take part in the endeavour.
Muon Space creates miniature satellites and sensing equipment that it intends to deploy into orbit in order to track changes in the climate and the oceans.
Small radar-sensing weather satellites and microwave sounders are used in the constellation that Tomorrow.io is building. In order to assist the company’s weather satellite research and supply data as a service to the military and other governmental organisations, the company last year secured a $19.3 million U.S. Air Force contract.
An atmospheric monitoring technology system called WeatherHive, created by Greensight, uses nano-sized drones to assess atmospheric conditions.
An artificial intelligence prototype platform will be created by data analytics company NextGen Federal Systems to curate commercial meteorological data.
For in-situ weather measurements across the world, WindBorne Systems designs, manufactures, and manages a constellation of long-duration weather balloons.