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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; and Commercial Data Purchase in support of operational weather forecasting.

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

Delivery Order-2

On Wednesday, April 12, 2023, NOAA awarded a 6-month Delivery Order-2 (DO-2) contract to Space Sciences and Engineering LLC (PlanetiQ) under the Radio Occultation Data Buy II (RODB-2) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

NOAA will acquire 3,100 radio occultation (RO) profiles per day (Neutral Atmosphere Data only) with an implementation data sharing license #1 (unlimited distribution rights). The data delivery period shall be for 184 days running from Tuesday, July 18, 2023, through Thursday, January 18, 2024.

The fifth and final delivery order (DO-5) of RODB IDIQ-1 is currently in execution and will end on July 18, 2023. Spire Global Subsidiary Inc. was awarded DO-5 and is currently delivering 3,300 profiles per day with an implementation data sharing license #1.

Subsequent Delivery Orders off of the RODB-2 IDIQ contracts will be released throughout the five-year contract period at NOAA’s discretion.

On March 23, 2023, NOAA announced the award of the RODB-2 IDIQ contracts. NOAA awarded two, five-year RODB-2 IDIQ contracts with a total maximum value of $59,312,954 to Space Sciences and Engineering LLC (PlanetiQ) and Spire Global Subsidiary Inc.

On Monday, March 27, 2023, NOAA announced the awards of two RODB-2 Delivery Order 1-Test (DO-1T) contracts to Space Sciences and Engineering LLC (PlanetiQ) and Spire Global Subsidiary Inc. To prepare for a full operational stream of GNSS RO data, NOAA awarded these two DO-1T firms-fixed price delivery orders to Spire and to PlanetiQ for 500 GNSS RO profiles per day for 30 consecutive days; DO-1T commenced on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

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.

View award information on SAM.gov

NOAA’s Commercial Data Program (CDP) supports CWDP studies to demonstrate the quality and impact of commercial data on NOAA’s weather forecast models. This contract award constitutes the next round of NOAA’s CWDP studies with a particular focus on ocean surface wind data.

For this Pilot Study, NOAA will assess the quality and impact of available commercial global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) observations for the measurement of OSW and other characteristics. NOAA will use Pilot Study data to improve upon NOAA’s derived wind speed products and investigate the utility of derived wind speed products developed by commercial vendors.

The period of performance of the OSW CWDP study is 12 months; the Pilot study will be conducted in three phases: Phase 1: Preparation (3 months); Phase 2: Data Delivery (6 months); and Phase 3: Evaluation (3 months).

Upon completion and evaluation, successful CWDP studies may lead to sustained commercial data purchases by CDP to support NOAA’s research and operational forecasting endeavors. The CWDP awards are pursuant to the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-25). NOAA is pleased to take this next step in working with the commercial sector to obtain and analyze ocean surface winds and related ancillary data to meet NOAA’s critical weather forecasting mission for the Nation.

The OSW Pilot contract follows up on an RFP issued in August 2023.

Previous Activity

General/Other Requests for Information

On September 15, 2022, NOAA issued a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting information on existing or planned commercial satellite environmental data and related capabilities that will be available in the FY2023 through FY2030 timeframe, and that may help NOAA meet its diverse mission objectives.

View RFI at SAM.gov

Responses will be used to inform a potential Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) project for terrestrial weather applications, as well as future pilots for space weather and other applications.

Previous Activity

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

Contract Awards to GeoOptics, PlanetiQ, & Spire

On July 14, 2022, NOAA awarded three Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) space weather contracts to GeoOptics Inc. (Pasadena, CA), Space Sciences and Engineering LLC, dba PlanetiQ (Golden, CO), and Spire Global Subsidiary, Inc (San Francisco, CA). These contract awards constitute the next round of NOAA’s CWDP studies with a particular focus on space weather data. Read more

Previous Activity

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

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

New Legislation

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