The global satellite solutions provider SES Government Solutions (SES GS) yesterday announced that through a one year contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), it will be providing O3b Networks' services and ground equipment to the National Weather Service Office (WSO) in the capital city of American Samoa, Pago Pago.
SES Government Solutions is a subsidiary of global satellite operator SES headquartered in Luxembourg, and has been established to exclusively focus on the satellite communications needs of the U.S. Government. It will therefore aid in WSO's support of the National Weather Service (NWS), which seeks to provide weather, water and climate data, as well as forecasts and warnings for the protections of life and property. The WSO is able to provide tropical cyclone warning information, which is critical for the livelihoods of populations in portions of the Pacific.
The contract will allow for the expansion of NOAA's broadband connectivity outside the continental U.S., facilitating the wider dissemination of weather and data forecasting. To meet this requirement, the NOAA will use O3b communications such as its ground equipment and services at WSO Pago Pago and its high throughput and low latency bandwidth to enhance the existing terrestrial connectivity of NOAA.
In order for NOAA to keep forecast models updated and issue safety warnings as they are received, an uninterrupted high-speed data connection between the NOAA Pago Pago station and the primary Pacific NWS centre on Ford Island in Honolulu, Hawaii, will be necessary. Weather maps and seismic data, which are to be transferred between the two, represent Big Data files and will be rapidly analysed due to the O3b connection, whilst NOAA can reduce reaction times to weather or seismic events.
