NOAA Releases RFP for Commercial Microwave Sounder Pilot
On July 15, 2024, NOAA released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Commercial Microwave Sounder Pilot to be conducted under its Commercial Data Purchase (CDP) program.
Industry proposals are due on August 16, 2024.
For this pilot study, NOAA is seeking passive microwave sounder products from commercial vendors that will enable NOAA to derive vertical temperature and moisture profiles of the atmosphere, as well as land and hydrology measurements that meet the current and anticipated needs of operational weather models and applications.
NOAA will evaluate and demonstrate the quality and impact of commercially available microwave sounder data on NOAA’s weather forecast models. Successful studies subsequently may lead to sustained commercial data purchases of this type of data to supplement the government backbone supporting NOAA’s operational forecasting endeavors.
NOAA is conducting this study as a Commercial Weather Data Pilot (CWDP) pursuant to the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-25) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-42).