Skip to main content

Spire Global Subsidiary, Inc., (Spire) designs, builds, and operates a growing constellation of over 120 3U Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) small satellites (SmallSats) designed to collect radio frequency (RF) signals from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The company offers a suite of commercial RF sensing products, including a catalog of atmosphere, ionosphere, and weather data services derived from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals collection.

Spire LEMUR SmallSats are equipped with the STRATOS payload, which collects GNSS signals from which Spire can derive a range of Earth observation data for climate and space weather research, among other applications.

Spire was one of the companies selected for evaluation in the original Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program Pilot and since then has provided new products that have gone under evaluation and are now available.

Authorized Data Use and Users

All members of the U.S. Government have access to Spire data for scientific use. All data requests must be approved by CSDA.

End User License Agreement

Spire USG EULA

Accessing Spire Data

  • Contact CSDA and provide a name, email address, and other pertinent information (grant number, contract number, etc.) for data access approval
  • Search for Spire data using the CSDA SmallSat Data Explorer (SDX; note: Earthdata Login is required for access)
  • Review discovered data and download direct from the SDX or using the Bulk Download Tool

For Spire Magnetometer and Raw Intermediate Frequency data, make a request to CSDA at csdap@uah.edu.

NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) Users

NCCS users can access Spire data as a Centralized Storage System (CSS) data collection. To access these mirrored data:

  • Follow the instructions above to request access to Spire data
  • Once approved, forward your approval email to NCCS Support
  • When your request is granted, you will be able to access the data from NCCS machines (e.g., discover, ADAPT) on the CSS file system under the “csda-spire/” subdirectory

Copyright

Data products and derivatives must contain the following copyright markings (where YYYY is the year of the image acquisition):

  • For data products: “© Spire Global, Inc. YYYY. All rights reserved.”
  • For derivatives: “Includes copyrighted material of Spire Global, Inc. All rights reserved.”
  • A joint copyright notice may be used as appropriate

Authorized users should send Spire a courtesy copy of any publications that include Spire data.

CSDA Acknowledgment

To help CSDA identify your publications, we request that you include the following acknowledgment when publishing work created using these data:

"This work utilized data made available through the NASA Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program."

Additional Information

More information can be found on the Spire CSDA Program Data FAQ (PDF). For detailed product descriptions, please see Spire's CSDA Program Product Summaries page.

Spire Commercial Data

Spire LEMUR Constellation and Instrument Characteristics
ParameterValue
Design life3 years
Built bySpire
Volume100 x 100 x 340.5 mm (3U) 100 x 226.3 x 340.5 mm (6U)
Total MassUp to 6kg (3U) or 12kg (6U)
ADCS3-axis stabilized, agile and precise
Orbit Average Power Usage8–12 Watts, 35 Watts Peak
TransmittersUHF: 400–450 MHz, 9600 baud S-band: 2.20GHz, 1Mbit X-band: 8.2GHz, 40Mbit
ReceiversUHF: 400–450 MHz, 9600 baud S-Band: 2.032GHz, 1Mbit
Orbit Inclination 
Payloads
  • Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver
  • STRATOS GNSS radio occultation (RO) & precise orbit determination (POD)
    • POD antenna: zenith, L1/L2 RHCP
    • High-gain RO antennas: fore/aft, L1/L2 RHCP
    • Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B)
Observables
  • GNSS Radio Occultation (L0–L2 atmos. prf)
  • Grazing Angle GNSS-R (L0–L2 sea ice type & altimetry)
  • Conventional GNSS-R (L0–L2 soil moisture, ocean winds & MSS) (under evaluation)
  • Raw IF captures (GNSS-R)
  • Precise Orbit Determination (L0–L1)
  • Space Weather (TEC, EDP, Scintillation) (L0–L2)
  • Magnetometer (simple sensor data) (L0)
Spire GNSS Earth Observation SmallSats
 

3U form factor

  • Moderate gain, dual antennas (rising/setting RO)
  • Multi-GNSS signals tracked
  • Rapid on-orbit innovation
 

3U form factor

  • Dual nadir antennas
  • Multi-GNSS signals tracked
  • 30 simultaneous reflections
  • First launched December 2019
 

3U form factor

  • Triple GNSS-R antennas
  • Multi-GNSS signals tracked
  • 45 simultaneous reflections
  • Advanced calibration
  • First launched January 2021