Attachment A - Product Description - Fluidless Snow Pillow.docx

ATTACHMENT A:

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

For

FLUIDLESS SNOW PILLOW

The Contractor must demonstrate the ability to meet all requirements for the solicitation. The objective is to provide the Fluidless Snow Pillow identified in this requirement. Offered products must be the SOMMER® SSG-2 1000 mm SWE Snow Scale brand of equipment from Kisters North America. Only new equipment is acceptable; no remanufactured or "gray market" items. To receive a rating of technically acceptable, the quote must demonstrate the product’s ability to meet and/or exceed all the salient characteristics listed.

Table 1. Contract Line Items

The type of fluidless snow pillow identified in this requirement pillow will be used to continuously monitor snow water equivalent (SWE) at an established snow depth monitoring site where ARS conducts collaborative field research with cooperators from the US Forest Service and Northern Arizona University. Pairing SWE data with snow depth data will enhance our understanding of how snowpack influences surface and ground water hydrology in the American Southwest.

Several snow depth monitoring sites are established in mountainous regions of Arizona within watersheds of tributaries to the Colorado River. The amount of water in a given depth of snow is influenced by air temperature – one inch of liquid water can produce from between 1 inch of rainfall to 2 inches of sleet to 50 or more inches of snowfall depending on how cold the air is. As such, data from our snow depth monitoring sites lack critical information about the actual amount of water contained in the snowpack. We often establish snow depth monitoring sites near existing Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) sites that measure SWE, but SNOTELS can be many miles away and therefore have dramatically different snow conditions. Installing the fluidless snow pillow at one of our snow depth monitoring sites will enhance the quality of our data and, in turn, our ability to inform decisions about water management in the Colorado River basin The following SCs apply to CLIN 0001:

Table 2. Salient Characteristics