HOW WE IMPROVE LIVES
Use Cases
GNSS-RO improves weather forecasts that save lives, reduce costs, protect infrastructure, and enhance quality of life.
PlanetiQ’s GNSS-RO data isn’t just powerful in theory. It delivers real-world insights across a variety of fields, from improving weather forecasts and monitoring militarily contested environments to supporting space weather research and enhancing data collection over sparse regions.
Weather Forecasting
GNSS-RO data has been shown to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts when integrated into both AI and numerical weather prediction models. GNSS-RO profiles of temperature, humidity, and pressure are directly ingested into the NOAA, UK Met Office, and ECMWF forecast models, improving the accuracy of daily weather predictions used by forecasters and the public alike. The forecast models at these centers ingest more commercial GNSS-RO data from PlanetiQ than from any other private company.
GNSS-RO data also enhances hurricane forecasting by offering critical insights through data assimilation into atmospheric conditions over oceans, where traditional weather observations are sparse. Forecasters use this data to better predict hurricane intensity and track, supporting more timely and precise warnings for affected regions.
By revealing the distribution of water vapor in the atmosphere, GNSS-RO data enables more accurate prediction of extreme precipitation events through data assimilation, such as quantifying the strength of atmospheric rivers, identifying areas of potential flooding, and supporting earlier public warnings and emergency preparedness.
GNSS Polarized Radio Occultation (GNSS-PRO) data provides new and unique insights into precipitation structure, melting layers, and storm intensity, complementing other precipitation measurements. This emerging dataset gives researchers opportunities to advance precipitation science and develop new applications.
Climate Monitoring/Research
The high precision of GNSS-RO measurements allows for the highly accurate observations of atmospheric temperature and water vapor over time, enabling reliable monitoring of long-term climate trends. Because these measurements are self-calibrating and consistent across time, they also provide a stable global data record well suited for climate research, including in remote regions with limited ground-based observations.
GNSS-RO data is also used to verify climate models, helping researchers improve our understanding of climate processes and reduce uncertainty in future projections. Its high-resolution profiles of both the lower and upper troposphere, as well as the stratosphere—regions difficult to observe with other methods—further support research into stratospheric warming.
Space Weather Research
GNSS-RO measurements can improve space weather forecasts by monitoring the Earth’s ionosphere, including electron density and total electron content, helping researchers predict potential ionospheric impacts on satellite communications, navigation, and GPS signal accuracy.
GNSS-RO data also enhances understanding of ionospheric processes, providing researchers with detailed insights into the dynamics of the ionosphere and its response to solar activity, including geomagnetic storms and solar flares.
The global coverage of GNSS-RO measurements, including over oceans and remote regions with limited ground-based instrumentation, gives researchers a more complete picture of ionospheric behavior worldwide, an important input for improving space weather models used across the scientific community.
RF Intelligence
GNSS jamming and spoofing pose a growing threat to world militaries, government agencies, and industries that depend on accurate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). PlanetiQ’s satellite constellation can help detect and geolocate these disruptions, giving operators the ability to identify interference before it compromises critical systems.
For defense and national security applications, this capability supports mission assurance in contested and data-denied environments by revealing when GNSS signals are being jammed or spoofed and providing data to help locate the source. This allows military forces to maintain confidence in navigation and precision-guided systems, even as adversaries attempt to disrupt them.
GNSS interference also threatens critical infrastructure that relies on precise timing, including power grids, telecommunications networks, and financial systems. By detecting disruptions as they occur, PlanetiQ can help government and infrastructure operators respond quickly and maintain the reliability of these essential services.
Commercial operators in aviation, maritime, and fleet logistics also benefit from early detection of GNSS interference, which can otherwise lead to navigation errors, costly delays, safety incidents, and stolen assets. By identifying and locating disruptions, PlanetiQ enables these operators to safeguard operations and respond before minor interference becomes a major disruption.
Other Applications
Data collection over oceans and unpopulated area
GNSS-RO data can be used to assess the accuracy and quality of other atmospheric sounder products, such as those from infrared and microwave sounders.
Assessing sounder products
GPS-RO data can be used to assess the accuracy and quality of other atmospheric sounder products, such as those from microwave sounders.
Global coverage and vertical resolution
The combination of global coverage, high vertical resolution, and insensitivity to clouds and precipitation makes GNSS-RO an ideal technique for studying atmospheric processes and climate change. These advantages are particularly valuable within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), where infrared (IR) and microwave (MW) sounders are limited by much coarser vertical resolution and are prone to significant signal attenuation (IR and MW) or complete blockage (IR, in the presence of clouds).
Contrail Avoidance
Airlines can navigate in a way that avoids the creation of contrails, therefore reducing their manmade heating effects.
