First light imagery from Weather Stream's Global Environmental Monitoring System GEMS2-Amethyst cubesat. Credit: Weather Stream
SAN FRANCISCO – Weather Stream, a Boulder, Colorado, commercial weather satellite operator, is collecting global atmospheric observations with its GEMS2-Amethyst satellite.
Launched March 30 aboard the SpaceX Transporter 16 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, GEMS2-Amethyst is equipped with a commercial microwave radiometer to provide 3D atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles.
“Weather affects everything. From forecasting severe storms to supporting military operations to helping the insurance industry assess risk, the observation gaps we are filling with GEMS2-Amethyst touch decisions that billions of people depend on every day,” Weather Stream founder and CEO Michael Hurowitz said in a statement.
Because microwave sounding plays an important role in numerical weather models, government agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Air Force have awarded contracts to encourage companies to build and deploy the instruments.
