Tags: Weather Satellite, Hosted Payload, GOES
Publication: AviationWeek.com
Publication Date: 02/25/2013

AsiaSat-5 in its final preparation for shipment to launch base. A satellite such as this one could carry GeoMetWatch’s STORM payload. Image credit: Space Systems/Loral

As private companies gain more ground in the space and satellite industry, a startup company from Las Vegas, Nev., is attempting to get in on the race by developing a commercial weather satellite.

GeoMetWatch Corp. is creating its own paradigm for weather satellites, not necessarily in line with that of the government. Traditionally, dedicated weather satellites orbit the Earth with a limited amount of infrared and visible light-imaging channels. The company is instead building on an unused government development to build hosted payloads that could piggyback on commercial geosynchronous communications satellites to collect and transmit hyperspectral data in a continuous stream.

The first one of GeoMetWatch’s commercial weather satellites is already at work at the Advanced Weather Systems Laboratory in Logan, Utah. The Sounding and Tracking Observatory of Regional Meteorology (STORM), is a box-shaped hyperspectral imager that would be attached to the Earth-facing surfaces of at least six satcoms in different positions around the equator.

Once all the STORM units are in orbit, they are expected to provide 1.2-mile 3D resolution. GeoMetWatch believes STORM will provide three-times better weather-tracking capabilities than the current system of Doppler radars and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).

As tight federal budget cuts and aging satellites threaten the United States’ ability to forecast and monitor weather around the world, GeoMetWatch’s hosted-payload approach emerges as a possible solution. The company already has a U.S. Commerce Department license to deploy at least six of the payloads to provide global, overlapping coverage.

However, GeoMetWatch is planning to start its venture on the Asia-Pacific region, traditionally more vulnerable to extreme, dangerous weather conditions. A commercial communications satellite such as AsiaSat-5 could carry the STORM payload.

The company estimates that its first payload will cost approximately $150 million from development to takeoff, and expecting the price drops as more are built. According to reports, GeoMetWatch plans to launch the first STORM payload in 2016, and is expected to announce an agreement with a “major fleet operator” in the upcoming weeks.

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