Tomorrow.io Unveils Full Instrument Architecture for DeepSky, Its Next-Generation Early Warning Weather Satellite Constellation

The five-instrument satellite suite will close the global atmospheric data gap, bringing advanced weather prediction and early warning capabilities to more than 5 billion people currently living without radar coverage. 

BOSTON, Sept. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Tomorrow.io today unveiled the full instrument architecture for DeepSky, its next-generation early warning satellite constellation designed to solve the critical global shortage of atmospheric weather data. DeepSky will deploy a multi-sensor suite carrying five unique instruments: precipitation radars, hyperspectral microwave sounders, infrared and visible imaging, GNSS radio occultation, and GNSS reflectometry.

Roughly 71 percent of Earth is covered by ocean with virtually no ground-based weather radar, leaving more than five billion people worldwide outside radar coverage entirely. Storms frequently organize over unmonitored waters, leaving vulnerable coastal communities and global supply chains with short notice when extreme weather hits. DeepSky addresses this fundamental vulnerability by capturing direct observations across the entire atmospheric column, filling the critical data gap that numerical and AI weather models rely on for accurate forecasting. 

"The people with the least warning are the people with the most to lose," said Shimon Elkabetz, CEO and co-founder of Tomorrow.io. "A storm strengthening over open ocean is watched far less closely than one approaching a wealthy coastline, and that difference is measured in human lives. It is a gap in what humanity has chosen to measure—and one that we are filling. We call DeepSky an early warning constellation because that is the core mission: deliver clear, actionable atmospheric intelligence to decision-makers early enough to make the right decisions." 

Today's reveal of the constellation's full architecture follows other recent developments at the intersection of AI and weather prediction—including Sky 1, Tomorrow.io's atmospheric state model that rebuilds the global weather picture hourly. While software models have recently accelerated how fast observations become forecasts, DeepSky drastically expands how much of the atmosphere is actually observed in real time. 

Integrated Five-Instrument Suite 

Each spacecraft in the DeepSky constellation is substantially larger than current smallsat sounders, allowing all five instruments to fly on a single bus to observe the same atmospheric column simultaneously: 

• Precipitation Radar from Space: Delivers active, high-resolution 3D reflectivity profiles inside cloud systems. Rather than inferring cloud tops, the radar resolves structural anatomy: exact rain location, melting layers, and updraft heights. 
• Hyperspectral Microwave Sounders: Measures vertical temperature and moisture profiles across multiple altitudes through cloud cover, day and night. Sounders form the baseline atmospheric profile over oceans and un-radared regions. 
• Infrared and Visible Imaging: Captures high-resolution cloud tops, surface thermal dynamics, and environmental indicators on every pass, enabling automated detection and tracking of active wildfire conditions and thermal anomalies. 
• GNSS Radio Occultation (RO): Delivers precise vertical atmospheric profiles timed against atomic clocks. Unaffected by cloud cover, RO provides an absolute baseline measurement used to continuously bias-correct and true the rest of the constellation. 
• GNSS Reflectometry: Measures ocean surface wind speeds within a storm's rain-wrapped core where conventional scatterometers and optical imagers go blind — capturing the exact surface wind dynamics that determine hurricane intensity at landfall. 

Compounding Data Architecture & Global Application 

The key is that the effects of the instruments compound. By co-locating active and passive sensors on proliferated Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, DeepSky creates a compounding data loop. Radio occultation anchors calibration against atomic time; precipitation radar resolves vertical rain structure; optical imagers capture surface thermal activity; and reflectometry reads ocean surface winds through heavy precipitation. Together, the suite provides continuous cross-verification across the spectrum, delivering the foundational training data required for next-generation AI forecasting. 

"A forecast can only be as good as what was actually measured," said Rei Goffer, Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Tomorrow.io. "Across most of the planet, nobody ever built the instruments to do the measuring, forcing legacy models to fill in the blanks. DeepSky is Tomorrow.io taking direct physical measurements from space to power predictive models, eliminate blind spots, and empower national weather services and enterprise leaders to act with confidence." 

DeepSky is engineered for both public safety and commercial decision intelligence. It equips national meteorological and hydrological services accountable for public warnings with reliable data, ensuring public safety no longer depends on geographic location. Concurrently, it empowers global aviation, agriculture, energy, insurance, and supply chain enterprises to mitigate weather disruptions, reduce financial risk, and optimize operational scheduling. 

Today, Tomorrow.io operates eleven of its Gen-1 microwave sounders in LEO feeding Sky 1. DeepSky represents the company's next-generation platform now in active production, building upon proven orbital heritage—including commercial pathfinder demonstrations that successfully operated precipitation radar from a small satellite and captured a tropical cyclone's interior structure from space. 

To learn more about DeepSky and view detailed technical breakdowns of each instrument, visit tomorrow.io/deepsky. 

About Tomorrow.io 

Tomorrow.io is the leader in global weather intelligence and space-based environmental monitoring. Powered by a proprietary constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, advanced atmospheric models, and AI analytics, Tomorrow.io provides real-time, actionable weather insights to sovereign governments, national meteorological services, and Fortune 500 enterprises across aviation, defense, energy, agriculture, and supply chain logistics. Tomorrow.io is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. 

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