#81 Dan Harkins, Tropical Weather Analytics

In this episode we talk about predicting extreme weather, timely (if not planned!) given hurricane Ian -- by the way, we hope you are all safe & sound!
Dan Harkins, the COO of Tropical Weather Analytics will tell us about extreme weather and how their proposed satellite constellation may help us predict it. 

 

TWA Website: https://weathersats.com/

 

Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:

• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: 
  https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
• Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space

Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast

 

Timestamps

0:00 Intro

2:30 Elevator pitch

3:22 NASA's weather prediction tech

4:09 Prediction timeframe and accuracy

8:17 The Polar Vortex

9:03 Why has nobody done this before?

11:24 What Tropical Weather Analytics provides

15:03 Measuring wind

17:13 The ESA Arctic Weather Satellite and other sources of data

19:32 Reluctance to use this data

23:55 Key customer segments and go to market strategy

28:14 Aviation

30:53 Satellites

32:28 Timeline, fundraising and vision

35:27 Microwave sounders

38:23 Climate Change analysis

39:30 Origin story

40:50 What else to do in the space sector

43:11 Sci-Fi

NB: Dan briefly mentions Spaced Ventures at some point. For full disclosure, Raphael is a member of Spaced's investment advisory committee. As a reminder, the podcast is purely for journalistic purposes and nothing constitutes investment advice or solicitation.