[zorm]

Since the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017, Congress is requiring NOAA to start acquiring data via commercial partnerships.

NOAA has already made some contracts with Spire [1] and Saildrone [2]. I am sure there are more but these are the ones most familiar to me.

Your weather data broker startup sounds very interesting!

[1]: https://spire.com/press-release/spire-global-awarded-nationa... [2]: https://research.noaa.gov/2022/08/03/noaa-and-saildrone-team...

[counters]

The entire slate of commercial acquisitions planned or in progress can be found at [1]. It's pretty anemic; NOAA has spent far less than what folks were hoping they would. I think a major part of this is that the private sector really didn't have very many high-TRL observation systems that could readily be integrated into NOAA's assimilation and forecasting systems. Lots of planned constellations and ideas about things to do in the future, but just not that much stuff that was ready to package-up and deliver to NOAA. The most successful acquisitions for GPS/GNSS-RO and buoy/drone data seems strongly bolstered by the fact that these data were already readily assimilated by existing infrastructure.

The private sector has really embellished its capabilities to the detriment of the CDP and other programs. I think too many industry players saw NOAA's expansion here as a potential slush fund to fully subsidize their R&D, but again the TRL of planned observation systems was too low and so the system didn't really work efficiently. Classic policy failure - would make a fantastic case study or Master's thesis for someone studying weather in an STS program!

[1]: https://www.space.commerce.gov/business-with-noaa/commercial...