015. 04 JOFOC 09 19 23 Final- signed TEMPO 10 23 2023.pdf

Rev.:4/2023

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (MSFC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO)

Near Real Time (NRT) Solutions to Support the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG)

1. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303-2(b)(1) – Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition.”

This document is a justification for other than full and open competition prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).

The procuring agency is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the contracting activity is the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).

2. FAR 6.303-2(b)(2) – The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This justification provides the rationale for contracting by other than full and open competition to award a sole-source contract to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Near Real Time (NRT) Solutions. The U.S. Group on Earth Observations (USGEO) is the interagency coordination mechanism for federal agencies' civil Earth observations activities. USGEO established the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) to conduct a biennial collection of agency satellite observation needs for NASA to consider as part of its satellite systems engineering and budgeting processes. The USGEO Satellite Needs process provides the first-ever whole-of-government approach to addressing agencies' civil Earth observation satellite needs. The SNWG Management Office (MO) conducts a biennial survey of the federal civilian agencies regarding high priority needs for satellite Earth observation data to fulfill the agencies’ key objectives. After receiving these survey responses, NASA works with Earth observation providers to assess each submitted need and identify candidate solutions that meet the needs of multiple agencies. NASA then reports the assessment outcomes to the submitting agencies. Depending on the funding received, NASA is responsible for managing the development and implementation of new data products, services, and expanded data system capabilities to meet agencies needs identified by the survey. The MSFC SNWG MO, within NASA’s Earth Science Data System Program, was established to support the biennial SNWG survey cycle and manage the resulting implementation activities starting with the 2020 survey.

The TEMPO Near Real-Time solution was approved by the Office of Management and Budget and NASA was directed to implement the solution during the SNWG- 2020 (cycle 3) assessment cycle.

3. FAR 6.303-2(b)(3) – A description of the supplies or services required, to meet the Agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

The SNWG MO seeks to engage SAO’s unique qualifications to develop low latency or faster retrieval products from the baseline mission TEMPO Level 0 (L0) and Level 1 (L1) data stream. Development of near real-time and enhanced products is expected to provide significant benefit to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and several other federal agencies whose high- priority objectives include:

Characterizing the 3-dimensional distribution of key pollutants and pollutant precursors on a routine and systematic basis, particularly for communities near heavily industrialized areas that may experience disproportionate exposure to toxic pollutants;

Supplementing the sparse ground-based air quality monitoring networks in order to improve and more rapidly update emissions inventories for urban air quality forecasting;

Obtaining National Response Team (NRT) trace gas observations to support intensive airborne field operations;

Long-term routine monitoring of trace gas concentrations to assess air quality model performance, evaluate pollutant sources and sinks, and support international assessments of climate and air quality; and

Developing better pollution control strategies.

These objectives are achievable only if the TEMPO near real-time products can be made available within a one-to-three-hour timeframe from the observation.

The proposed SAO effort will develop products for speeding up/optimizing the straylight correction, wavelength calibration, Image Navigation and Registration, and polarization correction parts of the L0-1b processor to expedite its production. The effort will also develop a fast version of the baseline TEMPO O2-O2 cloud processor, a fast version of the Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) retrieval processor, and a fast version of the HCHO (formaldehyde) retrieval processor. The resulting products will be made available to the community within the stated period of one-to-three hours from the observation.

The estimated period of performance for the development effort of these products will be two years (24 months) beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2024 and completing in FY2026. The total estimated cost for this effort is $2,500,000, or roughly $1,250,000 per year.

4. FAR 6.303-2(b)(4) – An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C.

3204(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. FAR 6.303-2(b)(5) – A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

The rationale supporting the use of 10 U.S.C 3204(a)(1), is only one responsible source, and no other supplies and services will satisfy agency requirements, is described below.

The TEMPO instrument was developed as the first funded project of NASA's Earth Venture Instrument program as part of the Earth System Science Pathfinder program and was launched into orbit on April 7, 2023. In order to produce the TEMPO Near Real-Time products within the proposed one-to-three-hour timeframe needed to accomplish the scientific objectives, the contractor must first have access to the TEMPO L0 data. SAO is unique in that it is the only institution that receives the Level 0 data directly from the host satellite. Providing the raw TEMPO data to another institution is not practical. The host satellite was selected and contracted through the United States Air Force (USAF) Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center Hosted Payload Solutions (HoPS) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

To add a second data transfer requirement to the satellite provider would require a new Interface Control Document, additional servers, additional complexity to the host provider operations all of which would come at an increased cost to NASA and likely would not be acceptable to the host provider. The second option would be for SAO to relay the data.

This also would require SAO to make significant changes to their established TEMPO Instrument Operation Center hardware/software and operations to provide for this new capability similar to those described above for the satellite provider changes, thus requiring a change to the existing SAO contract (increasing cost and delaying schedule) or via a new contract. As a non-contract changing solution, currently SAO plans to make Level 0 files available to the user community through a dedicated within 115 minutes, however, this delay would be inadequate to accomplish the science objective of this effort.

Also, SAO oversaw the development of software and algorithms to produce the additional Level 1 and Level 2 data products making them the only institution capable of providing the Near Real Time solutions within the proposed one-to-three-hour timeframe required by this procurement action. Assuming the L0 data transport problem could be resolved, developing Level 1 and Level 2 data algorithms would be redundant with the effort SAO is currently performing, and lead to a duplication of cost and effort. In addition, there is significant effort required to perform various calibrations and data validations. This requires the provider to access various Lower Earth Orbiting satellite data. SAO already has existing infrastructure to ingest the needed data and perform the necessary validation.

The Near Realtime products that will be produced under this contract will need to be compared to the “high precision” science quality products that SAO will be producing under the baseline TEMPO contract. If a second contractor is involved in producing the NRT products, there is a very high likelihood of scientifically significant differences occurring between the two solutions with no reasonable method of resolving the conflicts.

Being unable to defend the solution results to the peer scientific community would severely compromise the scientific objectives.

Earth observation satellites are typically in Lower Earth Orbit in order to provide higher resolution data. Using geostationary orbit satellites for earth observation is a new concept and requires totally new and different data calibration techniques. SAO has the unique qualification as they are the only U.S. entity to date that has worked with and developed calibration techniques for geostationary earth observation data.

any contractor other than SAO would require a substantial amount of time, effort, and cost to duplicate the TEMPO data stream and become familiar with the TEMPO algorithms which would result in a substantial duplication of cost and effort and an unacceptable delay in the performance of the work. Providing the data directly from the commercial satellite provider would result in a substantial cost and complexity increase to the commercial provider that would be unacceptable.

warding this effort to another entity is estimated to cost an additional $2,000,000 to

$4,000,000 and a possible eight-to-fifteen-month delay in starting the project. The current baseline TEMPO mission is for a 24-month duration with no guarantees for extension. Delaying the start of this NRT effort reduces the duration and benefits of the project.

6. FAR 6.303-2(b)(6) – A description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:

A notice to the Government Point of Entry (GPE) website (Sam.gov) was published on June 29, 2023, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source contract to SAO. The results of this synopsis are summarized in Section 10 below.

7. FAR 6.303-2(b)(7) – A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

The Contracting Officer’s signature on this document indicates that the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. The Contractor shall be required to submit a proposal to be evaluated and negotiated by the Government. Prior to execution of the contractual instrument, a proposal analysis will be performed. The proposal analysis will ensure that the final agreed-to price for the contract action is fair and reasonable. The negotiation and establishment of a fair and reasonable price will be done in accordance with FAR Part 15. In addition to evaluation by element of cost, the Government will utilize an existing parametric cost model, developed by the MSFC Science and Technology Office, to estimate the cost of numerous SNWG existing and proposed solutions that are technically similar, to establish the fair and reasonable cost estimate.

8. FAR 6.303-2(b)(8) – Description of the market research conducted, and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted:

Market research was not conducted since this effort utilizes TEMPO data exclusively.

As previously demonstrated, SAO is the only entity which currently has access to this data and the time, cost, and effort required to provide this data to another entity would mean the Government’s requirements would not be met. SAO was awarded contract NNL13AA09C on March 29, 2013, from the NASA Langley Research Center (LRC). The contract required SAO to receive instrument data, perform the necessary data conversions to create the various Level 1 and Level 2 data products for future scientific analysis, and generate unique products for the study of various pollution products. The SNWG effort to be accomplished under this proposed contract was identified and defined as a result of the 2020 SNWG inter-agency assessment process. This process identified numerous benefits to other Government agencies and the general scientific community that would be achieved if certain pollution data products could be provided in near real-time (one-to-three hours). Given the need to produce the data products within hours of the observation, SAO, with their existing capabilities, expertise in generating top-level TEMPO data products, and unique access to TEMPO L0 and L1 data, is the only viable entity to perform this work in support of the Agency’s mission.

9. FAR 6.303-2(b)(9) – Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

No additional facts.

10. FAR 6.303-2(b)(10) – A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed an interest in writing in the acquisition:

A notice of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source action was synopsized on the GPE website (Sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above). The synopsis was posted on June 29, 2023, and closed on July 14, 2023. There were no responses to the synopsis.

11. FAR 6.303-2(b)(11) – A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

The Agency will continue to examine the market in the future for alternative solutions or new sources before executing any subsequent acquisitions for the same requirements.

Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) Near Real Time Solutions to Support the Satellite Needs Working Group

(SNWG) JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

SIGNATURE PAGE

Technical Representative: I certify that the facts presented in this justification are accurate and complete.

Digitally signed by SEAN

SEAN GREGORY GREGORY

Date: 2023.07.14 12:56:16 -05'00'

ST14/Sean P. Gregory Technical Representative

Contracting Officer: I hereby certify that the above justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

PS51/Rita R. James Contracting Officer

CONCURRENCES:

PS50/Jennifer B. Mccaghren Division Director Space Systems & Human Exploration Development and Operations Division

PS01/John E. Cannaday Director Office of Procurement by RITA JAMES Date: 2023.07.14 13:01:42 -05'00'

Jennifer Mccaghren

Digitally signed by Jennifer Mccaghren Date: 2023.09.22 11:49:51 -05'00'

John Cannaday

Digitally signed by John Cannaday Date: 2023.10.10 18:12:25 -05'00'

APPROVED:

DA01/ Leopard Competition Advocate Associate Director