On September 3, 2025, NOAA NESDIS awarded Commercial Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) Ocean Surface Winds (OSW) Pilot contracts to Muon Space, Inc. of Mountain View, California for $1,998,000, and Spire Global Subsidiary, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia for $2,560,695. These awards were made by NOAA NESDIS’ Commercial Data Program (CDP), which conducts Pilot studies to assess the quality and impact of commercial data on NOAA’s operational weather forecast models. NOAA’s objective in conducting this CDP Pilot is to identify and evaluate commercial data that can contribute to its weather mission objectives, particularly in supporting critical forecasts over ocean areas.
For this Pilot study, NOAA will build upon the first OSW pilot, awarded in September 2023, to continue to assess the quality and impact of commercially available GNSS-R observations. Additionally, NOAA will analyze high signal-to-noise ratio GNSS-R data, provided by Muon, and its capacity to derive high wind speeds, especially in tropical cyclones and winter storms.
The period of performance for the OSW Commercial Data Pilot study is nine months, beginning on September 10, 2025 through June 10, 2026 and is structured into two distinct phases: Phase 1, Data Delivery (six months); and Phase 2, Evaluation (three months).
The Commercial Data Program (CDP) assesses and acquires space-based observational weather data from the private sector to improve NOAA’s weather forecasts and explore ways to meet mission requirements more efficiently.