TRADING WITH WEATHER. GOVERNMENTAL AND COMMERCIAL METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES

Abstract

This paper examines the contested process through which satellite meteorology has been transformed from a governmental mission to one increasingly carried out by the private sector in the US in the last two decades. To illustrate this controversial transformation, it addresses the case of weather data obtained from radio occultations using the Global Navigation Satellite System. Since the late 2000s, a dozen small private firms have emerged who claim that they are capable of providing these data faster and cheaper than NOAA (the US governmental meteorological organisation). This raises the question of how credibly crowd-funded commercial private satellites can challenge the US federal meteorological agency at producing weather data. The paper examines who invested commercially in satellite data collection and highlights the governmental resistance to acquiring satellite data from commercial providers. It looks specifically at the forms of organisation and management of the US governmental weather satellite program and examines the extent to which they cohabitate with or contest alternative commercial weather data providers.