#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.