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NOAA Commercial Data Program (CDP)

NOAA’s Commercial Data Program (CDP) successfully engages with the commercial sector through pilots and acquisition of operational satellite data-as-a-service for commercial data to help improve weather forecasts and provide risk reduction to the overall observing system. The program includes two lines of effort:

  • Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) demonstrations of the quality and impact of commercial data on weather forecast models;
  • Commercial Data Purchase in support of operational weather forecasting.

The December 2024 Guidance for NOAA Commercial Data Buys lays out the considerations, best practices, and guidelines which NOAA programs and offices should consider when engaging in commercial data buy opportunities from sources that contribute to environmental intelligence.

In April 2025, NOAA announced plans to procure commercial GNSS radio occultation data-as-a-service from diverse and coordinated orbits, including the equatorial, polar and mid-latitude regions. Learn more

Commercial Purchase: Radio Occultation Data Buy II (RODB-2, 2023-2028)

Request for Information

On March 14, 2025, NOAA issued a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting information on GNSS radio occultation capabilities, especially low latency, highly accurate GNSS-RO-derived Ionospheric products such as total electron content (TEC) and scintillation. The RFI includes the Statement of Work for the RODB-2 IDIQ contract.
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Previous Activity

CWDP Round 5: Microwave Sounder (2024-)

Contract Awards

On September 17, 2024, NOAA awarded contracts totaling $4,266,400 to purchase Microwave Sounder (MWS) data from two commercial satellite companies in support of new Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) studies. The first contract for $2,266,400 is to Tomorrow.io of Boston, MA. The second contract for $2,000,000 is to Orbital Micro Systems of Boulder, CO.
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General/Other Requests for Information

Request for Information

On March 14, 2025, NOAA issued a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting information on commercial satellite environmental data and related capabilities available in the FY2026 through FY2032 timeframe that are currently on-orbit or planned to be on-orbit.
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Previous Activity

CWDP Round 4: Ocean Surface Winds (2023-2024)

Contract Award

On Monday, September 18, 2023, NOAA awarded a Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) Ocean Surface Winds (OSW) Pilot contract to Spire Global Subsidiary, Inc.
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Previous Activity

Commercial Purchase: Radio Occultation Data Buy (RODB-1, 2020-2022)

CWDP Round 3: Space Weather Data (2022-2027)

NOAA Releases Space Weather Data Pilot Results

In August 2024, NOAA released the summary of the results of the Space Weather Data Pilot conducted under the Commercial Data Program NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). In this Pilot, NOAA evaluated space weather parameters derived from procured GNSS radio occultation data.
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Previous Activity

New Legislation

CWDP Round 2: Radio Occultation Data (2018-2019)

CWDP Round 1: Radio Occultation Data (2016-2018)