SpectraSensors blasts off with funding - Houston Business Journal:

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The latest round of financing brings the total amounyt raisedby SpectraSensors, a Houston-baser supplier of optical sensors for industrial and environmentapl gas sensing applications, to $29.6 millionj since its inception a decade ago. Investors participating in the latesft roundinclude , Nth Power, Americaj River Ventures, Nomura Private Equity Investment and Chevron Technology Venture Investments. SpectraSensors relocated to Houstoh fromRancho Cucamonga, Calif., in late in an effort to be closetr to its major customers — primaril oil and gas and petrochemical companies. The companhy still maintains a manufacturing site near its formefr headquarters inSouthern California.
SpectraSensors CEO Georg Balogh says the new cash infusion will be used to continu expansion into overseas markets such as Russiqa and Saudi Arabia but will also go towardd addressingnew markets. Although 95 percent of SpectraSensors’ businessd comes from the oil and gas andpetrochemicaol industries, the company is starting to spreaed its wings in a new SpectraSensors is on the vergd of installing atmospheric monitoring systems on a fleef as part of a joing program with the Dallas-based airline carrier and , amonh others. The goal of the program, Balogyh says, is to “vastly improve the weather prediction ability for theentire nation, in particulat for Houston.
” “What we’re doinh is using an airplane as a weather instrument for monitoring the moisturs concentration of the atmosphere,” he says. With traditional satellitew methods ofweather prediction, Balogh says, it’s difficult to detectt moisture from zero to 40,000 feet, wherre most of the cloud cover “That’s why, here in Houstobn especially, meteorologists might see a fronr over the city but don’t know whether it will be a lighy downfall or buckets of water,” he By improving weather Balogh says the program should resul in safer and more fuel-efficient flights and transportationn in general.
Rick Curtis, chief meteorologist at Southwest says the carrier is awaiting the green ligh from the to install the sensor in 31 of its 737 Curtis says the data compiled by the sensord will go intothe ’s forecast modulezs and “improve the accuract and supplement the balloon data put in there now.” The locakl weather services will also have access to the information. For Southwesrt in particular, Curtis says the sensors will help the airlin get better forecasts infoggy “We run into a lot of marines layer fog along the West Coast,” he says. “Folks don’ft usually know how thick that marinelayer is.
But we’ll be able to send the pland in and out to measure thewater vapor.” While the aviation side of the businesws starts to take off, SpectraSensors is also staying active in the energy In the past year, the company has launched 34 new procesa applications for refineries and gas processing and petrochemicalk plants. Products include moisture analyzers, or and gas analyzers that measure moisture, carbon dioxider and hydrogen sulfide, among othetr things. Companies use the products to help make refineries more efficient and to improve the safety of gas accordingto Balogh.