PlanetiQ’s October launches added two Global Navigation Satellite System radio-occultation satellites to its weather-observation program. GNOMES-10 launched on October 1 aboard Transporter-18, followed by GNOMES-11 on October 20 aboard Bandwagon-5. In an October 22 interview with Via Satellite, chief executive Ira Scharf said the additions would bring the company’s constellation to five satellites and its capacity toward 20,000 atmospheric profiles per day.
That figure describes company-reported capacity, rather than a measured daily delivery total. A newly launched satellite must complete checkout before its observations become a routine input to customers’ systems. PlanetiQ reported establishing contact with GNOMES-10 shortly after launch and beginning commissioning immediately.
Radio occultation measures navigation signals as they pass through the atmosphere. A receiver in low Earth orbit observes signals from navigation satellites rising or setting behind Earth’s edge. Changes in the signals’ paths and timing reveal how the atmosphere refracts radio waves. Processing those measurements produces vertical profiles used to estimate atmospheric properties, including temperature and moisture.
The technique samples atmospheric layers rather than photographing clouds. As New Space Economy’s account of commercial weather observations explains, it can supply information over oceans and other regions with limited conventional observations. Radio measurements also operate at night and through cloud cover, giving forecast systems observations under conditions that limit some optical instruments.
GNOMES-10 carries PlanetiQ’s fourth-generation Pyxis receiver, built in Golden, Colorado. The company says it can track signals from GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, and GLONASS simultaneously. Using several navigation constellations increases the available signal sources. The receiver’s antenna coverage, precise timing, and rapid sampling are designed to retain useful measurements as signals traverse the lower atmosphere and ionosphere.
Muon Space supplied the spacecraft platforms for both new satellites. Scharf told Via Satellite that the missions progressed from contract to launch in about 10 months. GNOMES-11’s mid-inclination orbit adds observations at different local times, extending the sampling provided by the existing spacecraft.
PlanetiQ’s stated expansion plan calls for more than 20 satellites. The immediate task is bringing the new receivers into routine operation so that additional profiles can be processed and supplied to weather-data customers.
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