Tianmu Commercial Weather Constellation

Aerospace Tianmu (天目星座, Tianmu Xingzuo / Taiyuan International Aviation Aerospace New Material Industrial Park) operates China’s commercial meteorological satellite constellation, providing GPS Radio Occultation (RO) atmospheric data for weather forecasting applications. The constellation is positioned as China’s commercial equivalent of Spire Global’s LEMUR weather constellation — targeting national meteorological bureaus, insurance companies, and aviation weather services.

Each Tianmu satellite carries a GNSS-RO instrument that measures signal bending of GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo signals as they pass through Earth’s atmosphere. The atmospheric profile data (temperature, pressure, humidity at 100+ altitude levels) is particularly valuable for filling the gaps in weather model initialization data over ocean areas where radiosondes cannot be deployed.

Aerospace Tianmu targets a 90-satellite constellation to provide global coverage with sub-hourly sampling frequency. The company has launched initial demonstration satellites and is in the process of building out the commercial constellation. Tianmu’s data is being integrated into the China Meteorological Administration’s (CMA) numerical weather prediction models.