Accessible data drives insight for commercial, civic, governmental projects in difficult, emerging region
SAN FRANCISCO & RESTON, Va. – As new trade routes begin to emerge and competition intensifies in the Arctic, Spire is providing data to inform decisions on critical issues around climate change, navigation, and transportation within the region through its comprehensive data and weather forecasting services.
Research shows that Arctic warming is resulting in shrinking sea ice and changing ocean circulation and weather patterns. These changes are creating new issues that affect governments and businesses in the region and globally.
Spire’s earth intelligence capabilities can help support the study and understanding of various key indicators of climate change and its impacts in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Specifically, Spire is able to provide radio occultation (RO) data in the polar regions, collecting measurements down to the surface due to the low humidity in the regions and Spire’s broad-scale satellite coverage. This set of near surface temperature measurements enhances Arctic and Antarctic weather forecasts, which Spire believes allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the regions than could be traditionally achieved by non-space based measurements.
Spire’s global weather forecast platform offers data on wind, wave height, and maritime waves, and within the polar regions, Spire measures the extent, classification, and age of sea ice, and can distinguish sea ice from open water. This enables Spire to map sea ice coverage and delineate the marginal ice zone (MIZ), a transitional region between open sea and dense drift ice. This information can be used to inform navigation plans that avoid sea ice, which Spire expects may become increasingly important as governments and companies in the private sector begin to consider the Arctic as a more viable transit route.
Spire also provides near real-time vessel tracking capabilities in the Arctic through satellite, terrestrial, and Dynamic™ AIS data. In addition to collecting AIS signals from over 200,000 vessels around the Earth, Spire maintains extensive coverage in high traffic zones (HTZs) such as the North Sea. Spire’s solution adds dynamically moving AIS receiving stations on vessels throughout all major sea routes and HTZ areas, collecting an additional total volume of 10M AIS messages per day. Through its combination of global vessel tracking data, satellite observations of sea ice, plus weather forecasts of temperature, wind, and other ocean variables, Spire seeks to provide an all-in-one Arctic intelligence solution that gives operators in the Arctic confidence and clarity in this remote area and in uncertain conditions.
“The Arctic is a critically important region for the global economy, but it’s traditionally difficult to observe and track developments there,” said Keith E. Johnson, Vice President and General Manager, Government Solutions. “Spire is making intelligence in the Arctic region more accessible, providing operators in the area with the data they need to make informed decisions.”
About Spire Global, Inc.
Spire is a global provider of space-based data and analytics that offers unique datasets and powerful insights about Earth from the ultimate vantage point so organizations can make decisions with confidence, accuracy, and speed. Spire uses one of the world’s largest multi-purpose satellite constellations to source hard to acquire, valuable data and enriches it with predictive solutions. Spire then provides this data as a subscription to organizations around the world so they can improve business operations, decrease their environmental footprint, deploy resources for growth and competitive advantage, and mitigate risk. Spire gives commercial and government organizations the competitive advantage they seek to innovate and solve some of the world’s toughest problems with insights from space. Spire has offices in San Francisco, CA, Boulder, CO, Washington DC, Glasgow, Luxembourg, and Singapore. On March 1, 2021, Spire announced plans to go public through an anticipated business combination with NavSight Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NSH), to be traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “SPIR.” To learn more, visit spire.com.