The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a $500,000 Cooperative Agreement to Windborne Systems Inc., a small business in Palo Alto, California, under the Weather and Air Quality Research (CFDA 11.459) federal grant program. The funding will support the development of four key capabilities for Windborne's Global Sounding Balloon (GSB) platform over an 18-month period:
- A dropsonde system that can be deployed from the GSB to collect temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind data; 2) Single-link radio communication between the dropsondes and GSB; 3) A meshed radio network to enable data relay from the GSB without satellite dependence; and 4) The ability to carry and individually deploy up to 10 dropsondes from the GSB. These advancements aim to enhance Windborne's existing AI-enabled GSB technology, which can maintain continuous high-altitude atmospheric data collection over extended flight durations, in order to provide NOAA with improved weather monitoring and forecasting capabilities.
Generated 3/4/25, 6:17 AM