Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was awarded a $30M cost-plus-award-fee definitive contract by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on June 24, 2006, to provide contractor support services for the NASA Satellite Ocean Color Program. The contract, which was not set aside for small businesses, supported the Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG), an integrated organization responsible for mission operations, data acquisition, calibration and validation, data processing, archival and distribution, and community processing software support. The OBPG's portfolio included operational processing of SeaWiFS and MODIS/Aqua ocean color data products, reanalysis of CZCS and OCTS ocean color datasets, and development of the prototype data processing system for the GLORY mission. The work was performed in Greenbelt, Maryland, with an ultimate completion date of October 23, 2012.
Under this contract, SAIC supported the expansion of the OBPG's responsibilities to include MODIS/Terra and Aqua sea surface temperature data processing and the ground system for the Aquarius Salinity Mission, a collaborative effort between Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Argentina's national space agency, CONAE. These services reflect NASA's strategy to develop consistent datasets across multiple missions to support the creation of climate data records, enabling the integration of satellite oceanographic observations into long-term environmental monitoring and research initiatives.