Tag: ground stations

  • Finnish Skyfora raises €6.5M to turn GNSS telecom into real-time weather sensors

    Finnish Skyfora raises €6.5M to turn GNSS telecom into real-time weather sensors

    Skyfora, a Finnish weather data company building a new global data layer for weather and AI, has raised €6.5 million to transform GNSS telecom infrastructure into a real-time atmospheric sensing network.

    The funding comes as demand for high-resolution weather data surges, driven by AI forecasting models, climate volatility, and the growing need for weather-resilient operations.

    GNSS metrology system

    Traditional weather forecasting relies on sparse networks of expensive ground stations, weather balloons, and radar systems — methods that leave vast gaps in coverage, particularly in urban areas and developing regions. Instead, Skyfora combines atmospheric physics, advanced signal processing, and artificial intelligence to extract weather intelligence from GNSS data.

    GNSS meteorology turns every GNSS receiver into a weather sensor. The more receivers in an area, the higher the resolution of atmospheric data achievable.

    GNSS signals traveling through the atmosphere are delayed by water vapor. By measuring these delays from multiple satellites and ground stations, Skyfora can create detailed 3D maps of atmospheric moisture — a critical input for weather forecasting.

    Once the atmospheric data is captured and reconstructed, the system uses AI and high-performance computing to turn it into accurate, actionable forecasts.

    Using existing GNSS receivers

    Skyfora’s core technology uses GNSS receivers already installed in telecom networks, complemented by StreamGNSS hardware where telecom GNSS is not available, to measure atmospheric humidity with high precision and frequency. The GNSS signal delays are processed into real-time weather data streams that power next-generation AI weather models and forecasting systems, enabling more accurate, earlier, and hyperlocal predictions.

    The company’s approach addresses a structural bottleneck in weather forecasting: most of the world’s atmosphere remains underobserved, and existing observation infrastructure cannot provide the data coverage and resolution required by modern AI models. Skyfora’s solution scales using existing infrastructure, requiring no new hardware at telecom sites.

    Skyfora operates active deployments across multiple countries, working with telecom operators, meteorological institutions, forecasting partners and weather-affected industries to build out real-time atmospheric sensing on a global scale.

    Latest capital round partners

    The new capital will be used to accelerate the commercial scale-up of Skyfora’s software platform and atmospheric data products, expand partnerships with telecom operators, forecasting providers, meteorological institutions and weather-affected industries, and grow the team. The primary focus is on scaling deployment and market adoption: bringing Skyfora’s real-time data, API and atmospheric intelligence dashboard to market.

    The round includes equity participation from Eviny Ventures, Ugly Duckling Ventures, Lumo Labs and the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, alongside non-dilutive funding from Business Finland.

    The company is actively working to deploy datasets and customer opportunities across several countries in Europe, the United States, Africa and the Middle East.

  • GNSS reflectometry measurements improved with COVID-19 pandemic

    GNSS reflectometry measurements improved with COVID-19 pandemic

    Parked cars near ground station decreased accuracy from 2 to 4 centimeters

    A new study shows that the quality of GNSS reflectometry measurements may have improved significantly during the pandemic because of the lack of cars parked near the ground station, according to Science Daily. GNSS reflectometry is used for earthquake early warning systems, determining flood risks, and many other geodesy applications.

    The study, carried out by geodesists from the University of Bonn, investigated the location of a precise GNSS antenna in Boston, Massachusetts.

    GNSS reflectometry works well if the surrounding ground is flat, like the surface of a mirror, study author Jürgen Kusche explained to Science Daily. “But many GNSS receivers are mounted on buildings in cities or in industrial zones. They are often surrounded by large parking lots — as is the case with the antenna we investigated in Boston.”

    The researchers show that parked cars significantly reduced the quality of the elevation data by scattering the GNSS signals, causing them to be reflected several times before they reached the antenna, like a cracked mirror. This reduces signal intensity and provides “noisy” data — hard to correct with pattern recognition because the parked cars change positions every day.

    “Before the pandemic, measurements of antenna height had an average accuracy of about 4 centimeters due to the higher level of noise,” Makan Karegar told Science Daily. “During the lockdown, however, there were almost no vehicles parked in the vicinity of the antenna; this improved the accuracy to about 2 centimeters.”

    While GNSS stations were historically installed in sparsely populated regions, recent installations have been in urban areas to support engineering and surveying work.

    “Our study recommends that we should try to avoid installation of GNSS sensors next to parking lots,” Karegar said.

    Citation. Makan A. Karegar, Jürgen Kusche. Imprints of COVID‐19 lockdown on GNSS observations: An initial demonstration using GNSS interferometric reflectometry. Geophysical Research Letters, 2020; DOI: 10.1029/2020GL089647


    Feature photo: welcomia/ iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images

  • Orolia provides improved search and rescue with ground station upgrades

    Orolia provides improved search and rescue with ground station upgrades

    Orolia has successfully installed the first operational Cospas-Sarsat second-generation technology on search-and-rescue ground stations for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Florida and Hawaii.

    The ground stations have been upgraded with second-generation beacon (SGB) signal-processing capabilities to more accurately and quickly locate the source of distress signals.

    The NOAA Florida and Hawaii ground stations are the only operationally ready Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) ground stations in the world to receive the SGB signal specification capability.

    The Cospas-Sarsat global search-and-rescue system developed specifications for the second-generation 406-MHz search-and-rescue beacon, which uses a modern, spread-spectrum signal to achieve more accurate and robust performance.

    “The work performed by Orolia was exceptional, as the process of upgrading an operational system to a higher set of requirements, years after its initial design, involves minimizing downtime while validating the new requirements and revalidating the previous requirements,” said Mickey Fitzmaurice, NOAA SARSAT Systems Engineer. “The successful result makes it obvious that the engineering and operations team at Orolia put a great deal of time and effort into planning the upgrade, as the execution was seamless.”

    Orolia has also launched a Galileo-enabled personal locator beacon and commissioned the first two nodal LEOSAR-GEOSAR-MEOSAR (LGM) mission control centers.

    “This series of world firsts demonstrates Orolia’s broad technical leadership in the global search and rescue ecosystem,” said Orolia Director of SARSAT Operations, Steve Ludwig. “We continually innovate to enhance the usefulness of these technologies, from generating encrypted beacon alert signals to including alert authentication through the use of Galileo Return Link Service.”

    Cospas-Sarsat ground stations are called Local User Terminals (LUTs). These satellite receiving units are the ground stations that receive emergency beacon distress alerts. (Photo: NOAA)
    Cospas-Sarsat ground stations are called Local User Terminals (LUTs). These satellite receiving units are the ground stations that receive emergency beacon distress alerts. (Photo: NOAA)

  • More interference potential from another tower set

    Satellite operator Iridium asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in April 2017 to modify its license to add a new class of ground stations called Certus for expanded terrestrial, maritime and aeronautical operations.

    Iridium’s 66-satellite constellation provides, in addition to mobile communications signals, the Satelles time and location service: microsecond timing accuracy and 20- to 50-meter unaided position accuracy worldwide (see the “Innovation” column, July 2017 GPS World).

    GPSIA. The GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) commented in September, “GPSIA seeks to ensure that radio navigation satellite service (RNSS) receivers operating in the 1559–1610 MHz band are adequately protected from out-of-band emissions (OOBE) generated from the new Certus mobile Earth station (MES) terminals that will operate on the second-generation Iridium satellite system.

    “GPSIA and Iridium are actively engaged in constructive discussions regarding the adequacy of that protection, but no final resolution has yet been reached. [….]

    “In the unlikely event that GPSIA is unable to reach an agreement with Iridium, it asks the commission to impose limitations on the operation of Certus terminal devices to protect GPS/RNSS operations in the 1559–1610 MHz band at a level equivalent to what terrestrial terminals in the same and other frequency ranges provide at –95 dBW/MHz.”

    Iridium Certus infographic.


    Hexagon.
     Hexagon, the parent company of GPS manufacturer NovAtel, commented on Jan. 8, “Certain statements in the modification application regarding output power and amount of terminals to be deployed cause great concern regarding the unimpeded operation of radio navigation satellite service (RNSS) receivers. The application does not include enough information to simulate the impact properly.

    “Hexagon politely requests that the FCC will exercise the same due diligence [as] during previous modification applications close to the RNSS bands (for example docket 11-109) and establish a technical working group or a similar testing process that ensures unimpeded coexistence of the modified Iridium terminals with the established RNSS systems.”

    Documents related to the case can be found here, on the FCC International Bureau website.