Attachment A -SOW rev.1.pdf

ATTACHMENT A

Statement of Work (SOW)

January 2024

RFP 80GSFC24R0036

GLObal Modeling and Assimilation Support (GLOMAS)

I. Scope of the Contract

This contract is for Support of Global Modeling and Data Assimilation research conducted by Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) scientists in the Earth Science Division (Code 610). The contract will support the full range of research and development activities of the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO, Code 610.1).

The GMAO develops, operates, and maintains comprehensive models and data assimilation systems for the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land surface and cryosphere, including atmospheric composition and ocean biogeochemistry. Collectively, these Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) models and assimilation systems are configured to support NASA’s Earth Science missions, research activities, and various applications. GEOS systems also contribute to our nation’s capabilities in climate, weather, and environmental analysis and prediction. The data assimilation systems comprise the assembly, pre-processing, quality control and characterization of all the observations being assimilated, the analysis systems which combine model and observation information, and the Earth system models required to interface with the analysis systems. The GMAO effort includes the development and implementation of advanced coupled models (e.g., ocean-atmosphere-land-surface, cryosphere composition-circulation, ocean dynamics-biology) to support the assimilation systems and to address key scientific questions and prediction goals identified by the NASA Science Mission Directorate. GEOS models and assimilation systems are developed using existing software frameworks, such as the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF); they are presently transitioning to adopt new data assimilation capabilities using the Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI); they rely heavily on leading-edge high-performance computing platforms. These highly configurable systems are developed and maintained using modern software practices within a complex ecosystem consisting of semi-independent packages, many of which are shared with partner institutions. The GMAO collaborates within NASA and with the external science community in developing and validating its models and data assimilation systems. In particular, the GMAO participates fully in the inter-agency Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) and maintains strong collaborations with various branches of NOAA. This contract supports the full range of GMAO research, development, and production activities. The vast majority of GMAO activities require extensive expertise on the part of contract support staff in both science and software development.

The organization and activities of the GMAO are described further on the GMAO web site at https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov.

In order to comply with the Section 508 Information Systems and Information and Communication Technology Accessibility Standards, all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) items developed under this contract shall meet the applicable accessibility standards at CFR part 1194 and any associated IT hardware shall be IPv6 compliant.

This Statement of Work (SOW) contains Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) functional requirements that describe the work to be performed by the contractor in terms of NASA-required outcomes and/or results. The contractor shall be responsible and accountable for achieving the required results.

I.1 Statement of Work Structure

The IDIQ requirements for GMAO are outlined in Sections II, III, and IV. The IDIQ requirements for GMAO research and development support are outlined in Section II, and those for the GMAO’s GEOS production systems and project support are outlined in Section III. General project and mission science support requirements are outlined in Section IV.

II. Functional Requirements for GMAO Research and Development Support

The GMAO mission is to enhance the value of NASA’s observations to understand, analyze and predict changes in the physics, chemistry, and biology of the Earth system. The GMAO approaches its mission by advancing the science of Earth system modeling and data assimilation, especially through the use of NASA satellite data, for environmental analysis and prediction on timescales from weather to climate. The GMAO effort requires a substantial commitment to product-oriented scientific research and development. The large and complex systems development effort requires teamwork and sound software engineering practices.

Each of the functional requirements described below has scientific advancement as its objective.

The contractor supports work that involves both the development or modification of major software systems/subsystems and fundamental scientific understanding of the Earth System processes being simulated.

The contractor shall support projects that encompass all aspects of the GMAO research and development effort. The contractor shall provide all necessary resources, including personnel, facilities, equipment, and materials, unless otherwise provided by the Government, in order to meet the requirements. The Government provides local analysis and data servers and peripherals to be shared by the GMAO team, comprising civil servants, visiting scientists and contractor staff. The high-performance computing resources needed to accomplish the research and development efforts of the GMAO are provided through the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) at Goddard and through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at NASA/Ames Research Center.

In broad terms, the GMAO research and development effort consists of the following efforts, focused on the GEOS models and data assimilation systems:

a. Development and use of Earth system model components to demonstrate forefront capabilities (in terms of spatio-temporal resolution and system complexity) in global modeling of physical, chemical, and biological components of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and cryosphere, including their coupling, on timescales of hours to years.

b. Development and use of forefront data assimilation systems to demonstrate the impacts of NASA and other satellite data in global Earth system analysis and prediction, focused on timescales of numerical weather prediction (NWP) and sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) prediction.

c. Maintenance and development of software tools for system workflow, source code management, and data management, adapting to evolving high-performance computing environments, including potential cloud resources, and to maintain compliance with NASA’s open-source code and data distribution strategies.

d. Testing and evaluation of the impacts on NWP and S2S of improved GEOS model components and data assimilation algorithms, using established and newly developed metrics to evaluate the performance. Transition of enhanced systems to the production environment and documentation of the system structure, performance, and data products.

e. Introduction of new observation types into GEOS systems, including previously unused information from existing sources, the addition of observations from new NASA (and other) platforms, and preparations for future missions.

f. Development of stable data assimilation systems used to generate climate reanalyses, for distribution to the research and applications communities. These systems highlight the value of NASA’s observations of multiple Earth system parameters and supplement international “operational” observations in climate reanalyses.

g. Maintain and develop capabilities to enhance the use of GEOS-based products in support of NASA’s space missions, field experiments, Earth science research, and applications for societal benefit.

h. Conduct and document scientific research studies, conference presentations, and other materials to communicate with scientific colleagues and peers. Production of additional written and visual documentation oriented to outreach activities and applied science (e.g., health professionals) users of GEOS products.

II.0 Specific Objectives

The GMAO is expected to achieve, and the contractor shall support, the following specific objectives:

II.0.1 Development of advanced methods for assimilating satellite observations, in concert with in-situ data, across the Earth system and focused on

a. atmosphere (meteorology): microwave and hyperspectral infrared data from nadir and limb sounders, focusing on observations in cloudy and/or raining regions, precipitation, and cloud properties and on integrating information from operational, research-grade, and commercial sources.

b. atmosphere (constituents): aerosols, ozone, and other reactive species, from sensors in multiple orbits.

c. ocean: altimetric sea level (both nadir and wide swath), infrared and microwave radiances for surface temperature and salinity; ocean color.

d. land surface: infrared and microwave data for surface temperature, soil moisture, and snow.

e. cryosphere: infrared and visible information for sea ice extent and thickness.

II.0.2 Development of hybrid variational-ensemble and other state-of-the-art assimilation methods to ensure effective and optimized use of satellite observations.

II.0.3 Development and use of adjoint-based tools to evaluate data impact on weather to climate prediction in the context of the entire observing system (i.e., atmosphere, ocean, ice, land, etc.).

II.0.4 Development of coupled models, component models, and data assimilation systems for analysis and prediction of the Earth System.

II.0.5 Development of weakly and strongly coupled assimilation techniques between components of the Earth system (e.g., atmosphere-ocean coupling; sea ice-land coupling)

II.0.6 Development and routine use of comprehensive diagnostic, monitoring and evaluation tools for GEOS models and assimilation systems for a variety of applications, including (a) numerical weather prediction, (b) climate analysis and prediction, (c) observing system evaluation (OSE), (d) design of new satellite missions using observing system simulation experiments (OSSE), (e) input to instrument team algorithms, (f) air quality prediction, and (g) other research applications that emerge from NASA research announcements.

II.0.7 Quantitative assessment/evaluation and documentation of GEOS products.

II.0.8 Assembly, preparation, quality control of observations to be used in the assimilation systems including observational error estimation.

II.0.9 Assembly of observations and outside model simulations or analyses to aid in the evaluation/validation of GEOS models and assimilation systems.

II.0.10 Generation of products to support NASA instrument teams and NASA field campaigns, as well as external collaborations, and preparation of customized datasets for GMAO customers.

II.0.11 Research towards observing system design for weather, climate, and air quality applications, including development of new paradigms for “nature runs” of the Earth system.

II.0.12 Use of satellite observations and diagnostics from the various GEOS systems to improve the component and coupled models.

II.0.13 Development of effective techniques to initialize coupled climate forecasts and use of satellite observations to improve weather-to-climate forecast skill, including the conduct and assessment of experimental forecasts on an ongoing basis.

II.0.14 Research on the underlying mechanisms and predictability of climate variations at time scales from subseasonal to seasonal to decadal.

II.0.15 Production of animations and other graphics using state-of-the-art visualization software and hardware, and of web-based visualization products to disseminate results from GEOS systems.

II.0.16 Development of techniques to optimize production aspects of GEOS systems on available computing hardware.

The following functional requirements shall be supported by the contractor: (1) Atmospheric data assimilation system, model development, and experimentation, (2) Atmospheric constituent modeling, data assimilation, and experimentation, (3) Land surface modeling, data assimilation, and experimentation, (4) Ocean model and data assimilation system development and experimentation, (5) Coupled modeling and assimilation, (6) Observing system simulation experiments and observing system evaluation experiments, (7) Model development and validation of all Earth system modeling components, (8) systems integration, (9) Production of Earth system simulations, analyses, and predictions, and (10) Visualization of observed and model-generated fields and the publication of scientific results .

II.1 Atmospheric data assimilation system development and experimentation Contractor responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

II.1.1 Contributing to the atmospheric analysis development. In particular, the contractor shall contribute to coupling the GEOS model to the assimilation algorithms implemented through the Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) framework. This includes development and implementation of enhanced “Unified Observation Operators” (UFOs), adoption of more advanced versions of the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM), and improving the formulation of forecast and observation error covariance models used within JEDI. The contractor shall also support advances to the 4D-Var implementation by developing estimates of model errors, by tuning of the 4D-Var system, and by improving the computational performance of the tangent linear and adjoint models. The contractor shall also contribute scientific and technical support to the development of advanced methods necessary to assimilate cloud-affected observations and cloud and precipitation data.

II.12 Development of advanced diagnostic tools for monitoring system performance as an integral part of the overall DAS development. The contractor shall be responsible for developing and maintaining a comprehensive suite of diagnostic tools (e.g., to examine forecast skill and fit to observations), as well as user-friendly programs and scripts to facilitate their broad use by GMAO investigators. The contractor shall be responsible for conducting appropriate diagnostic experiments and for reporting and documenting results as part of the overall development lifecycle and maintaining these programs in version-controlled repositories.

II.13 Ensuring all developments are optimized to run efficiently on distributed memory parallel computer architectures with large numbers of processors. System computational performance will be evaluated in the context of operational numerical weather prediction throughput requirements.

Analysis development will encompass the optimization on scalable systems and the implementation of Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF).

II.1.4 Supporting the acquisition, processing, archiving, and monitoring of input data streams for the ADAS.

II.15 Supporting the utilization of new satellite and conventional data, system monitoring, evaluation, and validation of the GEOS ADAS, according to requirements specified in individual task orders. Task orders may require estimating and/or reformulating error covariance models to maximize the impact of particular data types. For high-density data, such as cloud-drift winds and hyperspectral sounders, the support involves development of appropriate thinning or data/channel selection procedures.

II.1.6 Developing and improving the capability to assimilate precipitation and cloud optical properties into the ADAS. The tasks include monitoring the data to check for biases and quality control problems, the development of appropriate error covariance models, and the conduct of experiments to evaluate the system.

II.1.7 Conducting data sensitivity and data withholding experiments to evaluate and ensure maximum data impact in the ADAS. The requirement includes the continued development of adjoint-based tools for the ADAS to evaluate data impact in the context of the entire observing system.

II.1.8 Contribute to the study of the meteorological structure and transport properties of GMAO's analysis products. Emphasis will be on the quantitative study of the three-dimensional structure of the troposphere, the tropopause region, and the middle atmosphere, focusing on the tropical quasi-biennial oscillation, the structure of polar vortices and the surf zone, and stratosphere-troposphere exchange.

II.19 Provide a quantitative assessment and documentation of the GMAO systems, develop and document suitable diagnostic packages for validation of GMAO datasets, and prepare customized datasets for GMAO customers.

II.2 Atmospheric constituent modeling and data assimilation The contractor shall:

II2.1 Contribute to advancing capabilities in the GEOS models and the JEDI assimilation framework for the assimilation of aerosols, stratospheric ozone, greenhouse gases, and other constituents in GEOS systems, in order to maintain and advance the long-term capabilities pioneered in GMAO and implemented in various GEOS production systems, including reanalyses.

II22 Contributions to the advancement of emissions and deposition models for atmospheric trace gases and aerosols. This includes the implementation and maintenance of databases of anthropogenic emissions and geographically fixed emissions sources, the development of interactive model components for flow-dependent surface emissions (such as dust) and deposition (such as vegetation-dependent uptake or scavenging by cloud droplets), and the further development of the GMAO’s QFED fire emissions modules, constrained by satellite observations of fire radiative power and other quantities.

II23 Support development of advanced capabilities for assimilating Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) data from the Suomi-NPP and operational NOAA platforms in the GEOS systems. Add, as needed, capabilities for assimilating ozone from other observational sources.

II2.4 Support advancement of capabilities of assimilating aerosol information from spaceborne platforms in GEOS systems, including Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). This includes, as needed, addition of optical depth information at multiple wavelengths (e.g., Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem - PACE), as well as the inclusion of ozone profile information, from (e.g.) the OMPS—LP sensors.

II25 Provide support for assimilating a variety of other stratospheric and tropospheric reactive trace gases (ozone and aerosol precursors), including observations from TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution

(TEMPO).

II2.6 Provide support on the acquisition and reformatting of input data sets required by assimilation, model forcing, and validation and the management of these data on relevant computational systems.

II2.7 Provide support for the running of composition assimilation experiments and analysis of results, as a contribution to research science questions and as a prelude to transition of new advances to the GMAO’s GEOS production systems.

II2.8 Evaluate the quality of aerosol and gaseous constituent analyses by comparisons with independent observations and other information (such as earlier assimilation experiments).

Monitor the GMAOs production systems using similar techniques.

II29 Provide a quantitative assessment and documentation of the GMAO’s constituent products, develop and document suitable diagnostic packages for validation of GMAO datasets, and prepare customized datasets for GMAO customers.

II.3 Land surface data assimilation The contractor shall be responsible for but not limited to:

II3.1 Integrating, testing, and evaluating land assimilation methods to make use of remotely-sensed observations of surface temperature, soil moisture, and snow (including MODIS, VIIRS and SMAP land products) to analyze and predict land surface conditions and their coupling with atmospheric circulation at a variety of time scales. The requirement includes the integration and evaluation of all algorithms, data assembly and preparation, model simulation, assimilation, and prediction.

II32 Supporting this effort by conducting tests of the system, validating the system by diagnosing its performance in the NWP framework and in the seasonal forecast framework and by comparison with independent observations.

II33 Assembly of data sets and evaluation of observational errors for ingest into the assimilation system and for validation.

II3.4 Supporting the continued operational production of a near-real-time Level-4 soil moisture product for the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and other future soil moisture missions.

II.4 Ocean data assimilation system development and experimentation

II.4.1 Contribute technical and scientific support in the development, testing, and optimization of a global ocean data assimilation system. Developments shall be aimed at improvements to the assimilation applied to the GFDL Modular Ocean Model Version 6 (MOM6) and the MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm). The work will be performed within the framework of the

GEOS model and the JEDI-based Sea-ice Ocean Coupled Assimilation (SOCA) infrastructure.

The utilization of new data assimilation methodologies will be implemented in the initialization of the coupled reanalysis system.

II.42 Development that focuses on assimilation of satellite (including conventional and high-resolution altimetry, ocean surface salinity, ocean currents, and ocean surface color data), conventional in situ data (including Argo, mooring, XBT, CTD), and new autonomous observing platforms (such as saildrones, deep-Argo, and BGC-Argo and under-ice observations). The efficacy of the developments shall be evaluated by cross-validation and by the impact on short-term climate forecast skill.

II.43 Developments optimized in terms of the computational performance of the implementation on a parallel computer architecture to ensure the shortest time to solution possible.

II.4.4 Retrieving data sets, including real-time retrievals for forecast initialization, preparing them for ingest into the assimilation system (including quality control if needed), estimation of observational error, and utilizing them for comparisons with the assimilation analyses and with the coupled forecasts.

II.45 Contributing to the development of a coupled ocean-atmosphere assimilation system to support weather prediction, improved initialization of climate forecasts, and also an Integrated Earth System Analysis.

II.5 Coupled data assimilation development and experimentation.

The contractor shall support NASA’s efforts to transition from a weakly coupled to a strongly coupled data assimilation algorithm and infrastructure for the GEOS systems. (In this case, strongly coupled assimilation means including variables from different model components, e.g., atmosphere and ocean, within the same state vector.)

II5.1 The contractor shall provide scientific and computational assessment of the JEDI-based data assimilation system for all components of the coupled model including atmospheric, ocean, land, chemistry, biology, and cryosphere.

II52 The contractor shall support the development of a new workflow system for GEOS as well as new interfaces for generating and configuring GEOS experiments and assessing the diagnostics.

II53 The contractor shall support building a comprehensive system for providing diagnostics for different aspects of the coupled system. These include observation evaluation, scientific development, testing, and assessments of the data assimilation algorithms (including coupled error covariances), and evaluation of the outputs of the data assimilation.

II5.4 The contractor shall support the building of a new database solution to streamline the accessing of the data and construction of observation files, including web-based sharing of these data in coordination with collaborators in NOAA and, potentially, other agencies.

II.6 Observing system simulation experiments

II.6.1 The contractor shall aid with developing, in collaboration with other GSFC and NOAA/NCEP scientists, an Observing System Simulation Experimentation infrastructure to evaluate the impact of proposed new observations and to help in planning new missions. The impact of new observations may be evaluated for environmental analyses, weather and climate prediction, and climate monitoring. The observing system tools will be extended beyond meteorological analyses to those for constituents, ocean, land surface, and cryosphere.

II.7 Model development The contractor shall :

II.7.1 Development of individual modules of the GEOS Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) and the Catchment Land Surface Model (LSM). Atmospheric model development will focus especially on the improvement of physics parameterizations in high resolution simulations, and the coupling with atmospheric chemistry modules for the troposphere and stratosphere.

Support shall include simulations conducted for model/module evaluation and validation and for scientific analyses. Support for developments in collaboration with scientists external to the GMAO will be provided as specified in individual task orders.

II.7.2 Contribute to development, integration, tuning, and evaluation of GEOS coupled models and their next-generation implementation: the coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) (atmosphere-ocean-land-sea-ice); the coupled chemistry-climate system; the coupled ocean biology and carbon system; and the integration of each of these into an Integrated Earth System Model.

II.7.3 Conducting model evaluations through comparisons of output with observations. The contractor shall assemble the data sets for model validation. Particular process experiments with prescribed forcing, experiments with models of varying resolution, and the like, will be conducted.

Experiments will be aimed at identifying rectifiable deficiencies in the models.

II.7.4 Interfacing with the GMAO assimilation groups, in providing the models to be included in the analysis system and for providing feedback to the model developers on model performance issues that arise through assimilation.

II.7.5 Component model development and assessment in a parallel computing environment through the conduct of a series of model experiments designed in collaboration with GMAO civil service staff. Model development will encompass the optimization of all components on scalable systems and the implementation of ESMF.

II.7.6 Implementation and testing of chemistry codes coupled with the GMAO AGCM, particularly the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI), GOddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART), and GEOS-Chem models. Model simulations will be conducted to investigate relationships between the atmospheric composition and the circulation. A range of model simulations will be performed to investigate links between climate change over the past 50 years and the stratospheric ozone distribution, and tropospheric air quality changes.

II.8 Systems integration The contractor shall be responsible for:

II.8.1 Integration of assimilation and model elements developed by GMAO scientists and collaborators within the data assimilation system into an operational configuration. The integration will encompass both algorithmic integration and optimization, and scientific integration to ensure scientific integrity and validity to support further scientific exploration and operational-quality product generation.

II.8.2 Development of comprehensive diagnostic packages for each component and for the coupled systems, including assembly of observations and other model simulations to aid in the validation. Validation encompasses a broad range of applications – particular science applications, climate and weather prediction, instrument team applications, etc.

II.8.3 Providing support for the online documentation of all the GMAO systems.

II.8.4 Supporting scientific validation of models, systems, and products as specified by the GMAO civil service staff.

II.8.5 Supporting the transition of all GMAO-specific software applications to modern compute platforms such as cloud-based computing and data storage.

II.9 Climate simulations, analyses, and experimental forecasts

II.9.1 Use GMAO atmosphere, ocean, land data assimilation software and the coupled model to conduct and assess experimental forecasts for weekly-to-subseasonal-to-decadal timescales and up to 30 years’ duration. Shorter-term experiments shall be conducted in near real-time. Forecasts will also be conducted in retrospective mode, for periods defined by GMAO civil service staff, to provide for a forecast calibration. Forecast uncertainty shall be characterized through the use of ensembles.

II.9.2 Aid in the design of the ensemble strategy to represent forecast uncertainty most appropriately.

II.9.3 Contribute to evaluation of the system. The contractor shall be responsible for regular diagnostics of forecast accuracy which will be assessed both by the amplitude and phase of the commonly used SST indices and by the patterns of SST, ocean heat content, and thermocline depth anomalies, surface wind stress anomalies over the tropical Pacific, and the surface temperature and precipitation patterns over the continental United States. Subseasonal forecasts will be evaluated as to the ability to forecast the major climate modes at subseasonal timescales, such as the Madden- Julian Oscillation, the Asian Monsoon, and the North American Monsoon.

II.9.4 Assemble the suite of validation data, document the suite of experiments, and set up near online access to the experimental forecast output.

II.9.5 Quantify the impact of various oceanic data streams on subseasonal to decadal climate forecasts: sea surface height from altimeters, sea surface temperature, subsurface temperature profiles from the tropical moored buoy arrays (TAO/TRITON, PIRATA, RAMA), subsurface salinity profiles from Argo, subsurface temperature from XBT data, data from drifting sensors, satellite-based surface winds, precipitation, surface salinity, etc., as specified by the GMAO civil service staff.

II.9.6 Quantify the impact of soil moisture and snow observations on seasonal forecasts through data withholding experiments and analyses specified by GMAO civil service staff.

II.9.7 Quantify the impact of assimilation of sea-ice observations on coupled forecasts.

II.9.8 Support testing and tuning of updated versions of the AOGCM. The contractor shall conduct simulations with the AOGCM as specified by the GMAO civil service staff, undertake diagnostics of such simulations to quantify the model's inherent variability, and compare with observations to quantify the model's integrity to nature in the representation of the dominant climate modes of variability.

II.9.9 Support scientific analyses of data and AOGCM-generated fields as well as component model-generated fields. This shall include the retrieval and maintenance of atmosphere, ocean, ice, and land surface observational data bases for model forcing, and for assimilation into the GMAO forecasting system as well as validation of experimental GMAO forecasts.

II.10 Visualization of observed and model-generated fields and the publication of scientific results

Upon completion of all experiments, the contractor shall provide visualization of observed and model-generated fields and the publication of these scientific results through the World Wide Web. The project currently uses Python and FLUID for graphics and visualization. High-quality graphics are also required for presentations and for publication in the peer-reviewed literature.

Publications will include presentations and web-based material for outreach to the scientific community, to agency program managers, and the general public.

III. Functional Requirements for GMAO Production Systems and Project Support

III.1 GMAO Production Systems Development and Maintenance

The GMAO develops, operates, and maintains the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) data assimilation system (DAS). The GEOS DAS assimilates data from numerous space-borne, airborne and in situ platforms. The DAS provides assimilated data products to EOS instrument teams for use in their retrieval algorithms. It also generates products in support of NASA field campaigns and various international projects, including routine inter-comparison with analyses and forecasts made at numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers around the world. The GEOS DAS also provides reanalysis products focused on the climate record, by reprocessing historical data streams throughout the satellite era, which are openly available online through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Products that support international projects and field campaigns are generally available through the data portal of the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS). Model simulations are also generated for scientific analysis and are available for collaborating scientists. A description of the current production system, including the several different data streams routinely generated for the aforementioned types of products, is available on the GMAO web site at http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/GMAO_products/. Technical descriptions and documentation of GEOS system components are available at http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/GEOS_systems/, particularly at the GEOS wiki accessible there.

III.1.1 Contribute to developing the operational GEOS atmospheric, ocean, ice, and land data assimilation software (hereafter the GEOS systems), the operational GEOS systems test plans, test procedures and test reports for GEOS systems verification, GEOS systems evaluation, and GEOS systems operational end-to-end testing. The contractor shall support NASA instrument teams in testing of the GEOS systems upgrades by providing sample operational datasets. A major external element for the GMAO data production operation is the GES DISC, which is responsible for providing the GMAO with much of the input data sets for the GEOS product generation. The DISC is also responsible for archiving GEOS standard data products and for distributing products to users who require access through the DISC. The contractor shall work with the DISC to clarify and coordinate changes to the interface requirements for GEOS operational data products.

III.1.2 Development and maintenance of software components required to integrate upgrades to the GEOS systems into the operational environment. The typical codes to be developed are input data preprocessing, I/O routines including output data formatting (such as HDF) for external customers, job scheduling scripts, and data management scripts. The contractor shall integrate upgraded software components within the version control system (e.g., GitHub) and build the GEOS DAS for system verification and subsequent promotion of the systems to operations.

III.1.3 Supporting multi-year reanalysis or reprocessing assimilations using the GEOS operational systems. This support shall include identifying and preparing observations and boundary conditions and identifying their source for acquisition.

III.1.4 Providing general support to GEOS data users, external or internal, in answering questions or solving technical problems related to the use of GEOS data.

III.1.5 Maintaining software development using software configuration management (CM) tools.

The contractor shall document all the system changes in requisite CM records. The contractor shall be responsible for developing, maintaining, and updating the file specification document that describes the format, frequency, and fields in each of the data products.

III.1.6 Providing support to the overall system performance enhancement efforts in the areas of software optimization and portability, memory utilization, I/O throughput, and data archival requirements for future releases of GMAO production systems.

III.1.7 Coordinating the management and organization of data products generated by or used in the operational systems in support of the GMAO product generation.

III.1.8 The data portal in the NCCS is another mechanism for serving selected GEOS products.

The contractor shall work with the NCCS to ensure that the appropriate online disk cache is available for serving these products by estimating the size of the product pool using the required retention period defined by the GMAO civil service staff. Contractor staff shall also ensure that the data access policies appropriate for each product are documented.

III.1.9 NASA’s commitment to open data distribution may include dissemination via cloud-based systems, in place of or in addition to the use of GES DISC. The contractor shall support GMAO’s efforts to transition to cloud-based hosting of data products, as needed.

III.2 GEOS Production Operation

The contractor shall also:

III.2.1 Perform the near real-time data production operation of the GEOS data assimilation systems including GEOS-FP, GEOS-IT, GEOS-CF, MERRA-2, SMAP L4, as well as future incarnations of GEOS systems. The system operation encompasses the project coordination, production of analyses and forecast data products as well as GEOS DAS data reprocessing in multi-year reanalyses. This includes logging and reporting all anomalies encountered during the system operation monitoring.

III.2.2 Update the GEOS DAS operations information daily on the GMAO web page to reflect the up-to-date status of the system. The contractor shall update the operations procedure document as needed to incorporate procedural changes due to evolving GEOS system or computing environment changes and develop and maintain job monitoring and job performance/benchmarking software.

III.2.3 Locate, archive, prepare and provide GEOS data products and other ancillary data, e.g., data used for product verification or validation, to the GEOS data product users and developers whose data requests have been approved by GMAO management.

III.2.4 Log all the incoming data requests by the GEOS data users. For each approved data request, the contractor shall provide an estimate of required disk space, archival space, time period for maintaining the data, and preferred route for delivering data to customers. The contractor shall prepare, format, and package the requested data and make them accessible to the requester within the delivery schedule agreed with the requester.

III.2.5 Obtain, catalog, and maintain ancillary data identified by the Government to be used for science research, software development, or product verification within the GMAO including the unified observation data collection for reanalyses.

III.3 GMAO Project Support

The contractor shall also:

III.3.1 Provide high-level project management, including (i) scientific, technical and staffing coordination among the IDIQ tasks; (ii) contract resource planning to achieve GMAO work priorities; (iii) training of contract staff in areas such as high-performance computing (HPC) software development, configuration management tools, shell scripting, plotting, neural network techniques, and data manipulation software tools, and statistical software; and (iv) regular meetings with the GMAO Chief to provide contract status reports and to review problems and issues, especially those that could impact delivery schedules.

III.3.2 Provide technical support to maintain the GMAO home page, the GMAO internal Web page known as the GMAO Intranet, and the GMAO extranet, including (i) maintaining GMAO Web pages in accordance with GSFC Web policy and standards and GSFC Science and Exploration Directorate requirements; (ii) assisting GMAO Web authors to comply with GMAO-approved Web policy and standards; (iii) assessing the relevancy and currency of GMAO Web material and coordinating with GMAO Web authors to update, add, and/or delete material as appropriate; (iv) posting the latest version of GMAO documents in a timely manner; and (v) staying abreast of the latest Web technology and making recommendations to improve GMAO Web pages.

III.3.3 Provide technical support to create compact summaries of GMAO activities, including (i) one-page PowerPoint slides of GMAO “Science Snapshots” that concisely describe the latest scientific and technical advances in GMAO research; and (ii) brief “Research Highlights” that typically summarize recent GMAO publications or conference presentations.

III.3.4 The contractor shall attend domestic and international meetings and conferences, for the dual purposes of representing the highest-quality scientific research carried out by GMAO and of learning about related research carried out in other organizations. The contractor shall abide by all government travel regulations and guidelines.

IV. Functional Requirements for General Research Project Support

In addition to supporting the development of GMAO systems, the contractor shall provide scientific, analysis, and programming support for limited-term research projects typically funded through grants (e.g., NASA ROSES grants). The contractor shall also:

IV.1 Research Project Support

IV.1.1 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators to contribute to producing a National Climate Assessment by utilizing GEOS systems in several research and applied activities, aimed at understanding the strengths, weaknesses, and best-practices of GEOS data products, investigate the origin of extreme events in the United States, and understand how uncertainties in GEOS data products affect applied uses.

IV.1.2 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators to contribute to the design, implementation, and documentation of cloud-resolving Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSE).

IV.1.3 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators to design, implement, and document GEOS Visualization And Lagrangian dynamics Immersive eXtended Reality Tool

(VALIXR).

IV.1.4 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators to support ocean modeling and data assimilation projects which focuses on the optimal utilization of ocean observations for improving ocean reanalyses.

IV.1.5 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators to support algorithm, modeling, and data assimilation related activities for the Atmospheric Observing System (AOS), a multi-satellite constellation focused on the interactions between aerosols, clouds, convection, and precipitation.

IV.1.6 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators to support the U.S.

Greenhouse Gas Center (GHG Center) in order to enhance the availability and accessibility of datasets developed at GSFC and provide information to the broader research community.

IV.1.7 Provide support for project scientists and principal investigators for future/ongoing research science projects. GMAO CS staff are encouraged to enhance the capability of GEOS systems by exploring various research opportunities (e.g., NASA ROSES) to improve GEOS systems and advance science. The contractor shall supply scientific, analysis, and programming support for these future and ongoing projects, as defined by GMAO CS staff.

IV.1.8 Provide support to the Scientific Computing program in the Computational and Information Sciences and Technology Office (Code 606), the Modeling Analysis and Prediction (MAP) program, and funded applied research and development opportunities that require high end applications expertise. The contractor will be responsible for a) scientific computing support, b) Modeling Analysis and Prediction (MAP) support, c) Applied Research and Development (AR&D) support, d) GEOS and GMI Support, e) Software Engineering, and f) Cloud Computing Support.