NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) established the Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program to explore the potential of commercial satellite data in advancing the agency's Earth science research and application objectives. The program aims to identify, assess, and acquire data from commercial providers, which may offer a cost-effective means of supplementing Earth observations collected by NASA, other U.S. government agencies, and international collaborators.

During this NASA CSDA program vendor webinar, the speaker will introduce PlanetiQ and the company’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) and related capabilities. PlanetiQ developed a proprietary sensor on a constellation of satellites, providing the market’s highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) GNSS-RO data of the neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. 

The speaker will review the variables provided by the RO datasets as well as the impact of using these products in numerical weather prediction systems, and discuss how these data products complement NASA Earth science data holdings for research and applications. Additional topics include dual linear polarization RO measurements for precipitation, surface reflections that provide additional measurements of the atmosphere and surface properties, and sporadic E layer observations in the ionosphere.