U.S. space agency NASA has completed a one-year independent evaluation of commercial radio occultation data from satellite weather company PlanetiQ, concluding that the firm’s products meet or exceed key performance claims and deliver capabilities not matched by other providers, the company said on Wednesday.
The assessment was conducted under NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program and compared PlanetiQ’s data with industry-standard datasets, including observations from COSMIC-2 and other commercial suppliers. According to PlanetiQ, the evaluation rated its total electron content (TEC) measurements as “best-in-class” and highlighted its very high signal-to-noise ratio and deep penetration into the lower troposphere as a “unique value proposition.”
“This NASA CSDA evaluation validates what we have long understood — that the quality and operational value of our radio occultation data are best-in-class,” said PlanetiQ Chief Executive Ira Scharf. “As the administration considers options to expand the use of commercial satellite data, these findings position PlanetiQ to support operational needs from day one.”
NASA evaluated both PlanetiQ’s lower-atmosphere products, which are used in global numerical weather prediction models, and its ionospheric data supporting space weather applications. The agency said the data met or exceeded all major performance claims and were found to be reliable, well documented and suitable for operational use.
For space weather, the evaluation found that PlanetiQ’s observations help fill coverage gaps where COSMIC-2 data are unavailable, supporting applications with national security relevance. In ionospheric data assimilation experiments, NASA concluded that PlanetiQ’s data had a greater impact on model outputs than COSMIC-2 and other commercial datasets, driven by a higher volume of measurements per satellite and lower data uncertainty.
NASA also noted that PlanetiQ’s high signal-to-noise ratio allows measurements to penetrate deeper into the lower troposphere, enabling more detailed characterization of the planetary boundary layer and atmospheric ducting. This capability was identified as particularly important in the Arctic, where satellite-based observations have historically been limited and where improved atmospheric monitoring carries strategic significance.
In a statement accompanying the evaluation, NASA said its CSDA program reviewed PlanetiQ’s GNSS radio occultation data for quality, scientific utility, accessibility and metadata completeness, with nine competitively selected research teams participating. “Overall, most of the evaluators found that PlanetiQ’s data products are high quality, well documented, and broadly comparable to established benchmark missions for most science applications,” the agency said.
A formal CSDA evaluation report is expected to be released in the coming months. PlanetiQ said it expects the findings to support broader adoption of its data across weather, climate and space weather communities.
