NOAA has selected 14 commercial satellite companies to compete for orders across seven environmental-observation categories under a new Space-Based Environmental Monitoring contract. Announced on September 10, 2026, the procurement expands NOAA’s use of privately operated constellations to support weather forecasting, climate monitoring, space-weather services and satellite orbit prediction.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract began its five-year base period on September 1, 2026. NOAA may exercise a further five-year option, extending the procurement through August 31, 2036.
The IDIQ structure establishes a pool of eligible suppliers rather than committing NOAA to purchase a fixed volume of data from every company. Individual requirements, delivery schedules and funding will be assigned through subsequent orders, allowing the agency to acquire observations as commercial systems become operational and mission needs evolve.
NOAA divided the procurement into seven categories covering atmospheric, ocean, land and space-environment measurements.
Spire Global, PlanetiQ, Ethereal Space, Precursor SPC and Tomorrow.io were selected to provide Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation data. GNSS-RO instruments measure how navigation signals bend while passing through the atmosphere, producing vertical profiles of temperature, pressure and moisture. The technique also supports ionospheric monitoring and is particularly useful because it provides globally distributed observations under most weather conditions.
Spire Global, Tomorrow.io and Muon Space were selected for GNSS reflectometry. Instead of analyzing navigation signals passing through the atmosphere, GNSS-R systems measure signals reflected from Earth’s surface. The resulting data can support measurements of ocean winds, soil moisture, flooding, sea ice and other land and ocean conditions.
The microwave-sounding category includes Spire Global, Tomorrow.io, BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems and Weather Stream. Microwave sounders retrieve atmospheric temperature and moisture information, including through many cloud layers that obstruct visible and infrared instruments. NOAA’s category covers both traditional and hyperspectral microwave measurements, with hyperspectral systems designed to collect observations across a larger number of narrowly spaced frequency channels.
Ethereal Space, Tomorrow.io, Muon Space, Hydrosat and Tropical Weather Analytics were selected for multispectral imagery. NOAA identified low-light observations and wildland-fire monitoring among the applications in this category. Multispectral instruments can distinguish surface, cloud and atmospheric features by collecting imagery in several wavelength bands, while low-light sensors can observe nighttime phenomena that conventional visible imagers may miss.
Spire Global, PlanetiQ, Ethereal Space and SpaceX were named as eligible suppliers of thermospheric neutral-density data. Density variations in the upper atmosphere affect aerodynamic drag on satellites in low Earth orbit. Better measurements can improve orbit determination, conjunction assessment and predictions of how satellite trajectories will change during geomagnetic disturbances.
Tomorrow.io, Care Weather Technologies, ICEYE US and Umbra Lab were selected for a combined category covering scatterometry, altimetry, synthetic aperture radar and K-, Ka- and Ku-band radar observations. These active-sensing technologies can measure atmospheric and surface characteristics by transmitting radar signals and analyzing their returns. Potential applications include ocean-surface winds, precipitation, water levels, sea ice, flooding and surface change, depending on the instrument and frequency band used.
NOAA did not select a provider in the infrared-sounder category. Infrared sounders produce vertical temperature and moisture profiles with high spectral resolution but are more affected by clouds than microwave instruments. The absence of an award in that category leaves a gap in an otherwise broad commercial supplier pool.
The procurement builds on NOAA’s established purchases of commercial weather observations, particularly GNSS radio-occultation data. Expanding into imagery, microwave sounding, radar measurements and thermospheric density gives the agency access to a more diverse set of privately funded sensor architectures rather than relying exclusively on government-owned spacecraft.
A multi-provider structure can also reduce dependence on a single constellation and allow NOAA to evaluate differences in coverage, latency, calibration, reliability and data quality. Those factors determine whether commercial observations can be assimilated into operational numerical weather-prediction models or used in other NOAA products.
Taylor Jordan, NOAA assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction, said the agency intends to maximize the value of high-quality environmental data supplied by commercial partners. NOAA will support data streams and projects using emerging instruments and scientific capabilities that advance its mission to protect lives and property while supporting the U.S. economy and national security.
The next stage will depend on NOAA issuing orders to the selected providers and evaluating delivered datasets for operational use. The contract gives the agency a procurement framework lasting at least through August 2031 and potentially through August 2036, but actual commercial-data volumes will be determined by future requirements, appropriations and the performance of individual satellite systems.
