Log in
My Account
Subscribe 99¢ for 3 months
Newsletter

Today's Digital Newspaper

The Gazette

Weather Block Here

Login
My Account
Subscribe
Newsletter

Archive Information

Carrier Portal

Search

Buy Our Photos

Colorado aerospace companies land weather forecasting contracts

By Dennis Huspeni August 2, 2022 | updated 3 years ago

NASA recently awarded two aerospace companies with a large Colorado presence work on weather satellites that “will ultimately help save lives by enabling even more accurate weather forecasting,” according news releases.

Broomfield-based Ball Aerospace will complete two 20-month studies on new instruments for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Geostationary Extended Observations” (GeoXO) program.

One instrument will measure atmospheric composition; the other ocean color.

The GeoXO is being dubbed “NOAA’s next-generation constellation of geostationary weather satellites to address critical operational environmental prediction requirements” — i.e. weather forecasting and the environmental impacts of global warming conditions.

Lockheed Martin, which has a large campus in Waterton Canyon that houses about 8,000 of the company’s 11,000 Colorado employees, was awarded a $5 million contract to work on GeoXO’s lightning mapper and another $5 million contract for “spacecraft bus” design.

Sign Up For Free:

let pathVariable;
let pathVariable2;

function handleUrlPathSegment() {

const fullPath = window.location.pathname.toLowerCase();
if (fullPath.includes(‘/business/’)) {
pathVariable = ‘business’;
pathVariable2 = ‘Business Newsletter’;
} else if (fullPath.includes(‘/outdoors/’) || fullPath.includes(‘/outdoor/’)) {
pathVariable = ‘outdoors’;
pathVariable2 = ‘Outdoors Newsletter’;
} else if (fullPath.includes(‘/opinion/’)) {
pathVariable = ‘opinion’;
pathVariable2 = ‘Opinion Newsletter’;
} else if (fullPath.includes(‘politics’)) {
pathVariable = ‘politics’;
pathVariable2 = ‘Politics Newsletter’;
} else {
pathVariable = ‘am-update’;
pathVariable2 = ‘AM Update Newsletter’;
}

console.log(`Current path: ${fullPath}`);
console.log(`Path variable set to: ${pathVariable}`);
console.log(`Path variable 2 set to: ${pathVariable2}`);

applyNewsletterName(pathVariable2);

return { pathVariable, pathVariable2 };
}

function applyNewsletterName(newsletterName) {

if (document.readyState === ‘loading’) {
document.addEventListener(‘DOMContentLoaded’, function() {
updateNewsletterElement(newsletterName);
});
} else {

updateNewsletterElement(newsletterName);
}
}

function updateNewsletterElement(newsletterName) {
const newsletterElement = document.getElementById(‘newsletterName’);

if (newsletterElement) {
newsletterElement.textContent = newsletterName;
console.log(`Updated #newsletterName element with: ${newsletterName}`);
} else {
console.warn(‘Element with ID #newsletterName not found in the DOM’);
}
}

function setupFormSubmitListener() {
function getFormattedDate() {
const now = new Date();

const timestamp = now.getTime();

console.log(‘chris: Using Unix timestamp’);
console.log(‘chris: Current time:’, now);
console.log(‘chris: Unix timestamp (ms):’, timestamp);

return timestamp;
}

const formattedDate = getFormattedDate();
var profile = window.blueConicClient.profile.getProfile();
profile.setValues(‘newsletter_category’, pathVariable);
profile.setValue(‘newsletter_signup_date’, formattedDate);
window.blueConicClient.profile.updateProfile(this, function() {
});
}

handleUrlPathSegment();

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

View all of our newsletters.

function subscribeSuccess() {
var nsltrform = document.querySelector(“#nsltr”);
var nsltrSuccess = document.querySelector(“#successnsltr”);

nsltrform.classList.add(“hideblock”);
nsltrSuccess.classList.remove(“hideblock”);
}

function validateEmail(email) {
return String(email)
.toLowerCase()
.match(
/^(([^()[]\.,;:s@”]+(.[^()[]\.,;:s@”]+)*)|(“.+”))@(([[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}])|(([a-zA-Z-0-9]+.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
);
}

function validateEmailAddress() {
const result = document.querySelector(“#result”);
const email = document.querySelector(“#email”).value;

result.innerText = “”;

if(validateEmail(email)) {
newsletterSubscribe(email);
} else {
result.innerText = ‘The email entered: ‘ + email + ‘ is not valid :(‘;
result.style.color = “red”;
}
return false;
}

function newsletterSubscribe(email) {
fetch(“https://services.gazette.com/mg2-newsletters.php?action=subscribe&site=denvergazette.com&emailPreferenceId=62&email=” + email, {
method: “POST”
}).then(res => {
console.log(“SUCCESSFUL POST”);
subscribeSuccess();
});

}

#nsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: #2076b3;

background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/DG%20bus%20test%202.png);
background-size: cover;

}

#nsltr-header {
color: #fff4f4;
}
#nsltr-body {
text-align: center;
color: ;
}
#nsltr-button {
margin-top: 5px;
}
#successnsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: green;
text-align: center;
color: white;
}

#successnsltr a {
color: white;
}

.hideblock {
display:none;
}

h6 a {
color: black;
text-decoration: none;
padding: 5px;
background-color: #bbccdd;
font-weight: 600;
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 768px) {
#nsltr {
background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/DG%20bus%20test%202.png);
background-size: cover;
}
}

The lightning mapper tracks 1 million strikes per day globally.

“We’re thrilled at this opportunity to take all we’ve learned — through developing remote imaging capabilities for NOAA’s current lightning mapper and the agency’s GOES-R satellite series — and infuse new technology to build a powerful, weather-monitoring platform of the future,” Adrián Cuadra, Lockheed Martin’s weather programs director, said in the release. “We’ve continued to advance this technology, which will help provide more timely forecasts and snapshots of our environment to enable decision-making that makes our world a better place for upcoming generations.”

For Ball, the 20-month studies “will be based on Ball Operational Weather Instrument Evolution (BOWIE), a series of innovative environmental sensing systems to meet next generation space-based observation needs identified by customers,” according to the release.

“These studies are just the first steps in NOAA’s efforts to improve the nation’s ability to monitor, forecast and understand the conditions impacting weather, climate and health; from air and water quality to coastline health,” Makenzie Lystrup, vice president and general manager of Civil Space for Ball Aerospace, said in the release. “As weather events become increasingly unpredictable and extreme, we need to keep building better monitoring and forecasting tools. The instruments we are helping to define and design will be critical in NOAA’s commitment to building a weather-ready nation.”

33363472-129e-11ed-a8f4-8bed0cf68dfe

View Original Article | Split View
Dennis Huspeni

Reporter

PREV

PREVIOUS

Metro Moves | Jared Orsi takes reins as Colorado state historian

Welcome to The Denver Gazette’s Metro Moves. You’ll get the latest metro Denver openings, closings, hiring and promotion briefs here. To submit your company’s news, drop an email to dennis.huspeni@gazette.com. New leadership Jared Orsi, a history professor at Colorado State University, began a one-year stint as the state historian and leader of the History Colorado’s […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

Blue Canyon Technologies unveils expanded small satellite manufacturing factory

Lafayette-based aerospace company Blue Canyon Technologies on Wednesday unveiled its recently expanded “cubesat” factory in Boulder, which will eventually allow for the production of up to 85 small satellites per year. Blue Canyon, a Raytheon Intelligence & Space (NYSE: RTX) subsidiary, doubled the manufacturing space at the Boulder factory, off Airport Road, to 31,000 square […]