Mary-Louise Hoffman
San Francisco-based technology startup Sofar Ocean and the U.S. Navy’s Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command have identified three potential areas of collaboration to help the service branch expand data gathering and weather forecasting capabilities.
Both parties formalized a five-year cooperative research and development agreement through which several Navy organizations will explore use cases for the company’s data assimilation methods, marine sensing technology and data-as-a-service platforms, the command said Wednesday.
Sofar presented multiple offerings, such as its Spotter and Smart Mooring sensors, to NMOC representatives at a knowledge-sharing event held in July at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
“Our industry partners play a vital role in the naval research enterprise and CRADAs ensure Naval Meteorology and Oceanography can harness technological innovation to enable informed decision making by operational commanders,” said Rear Adm. Ronald Piret, Navy oceanographer and NMOC commander.
The signing of the agreement comes one year after the U.S. National Ice Center deployed a Sofar spotter buoy for North Pole patrol operations.
Sofar was formed by the 2019 merger between ocean data startup Spoondrift and underwater drone builder OpenROV.
