Southern Regional Weather Records Center

Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Performance Work Statement (PWS)

1. Introduction and Background

The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is to provide and ensure timely access to global environmental data from satellites and other sources to promote, protect, and enhance the Nation's economy, security, environment, and quality of life. NESDIS acquires and manages the Nation's operational environmental satellites, provides data and information services to numerous end users, and conducts related research.

The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is the official source for historical and near-real time atmospheric and space weather, climate, coasts, oceanographic, and geophysical environmental data and information, and supports the NESDIS mission. NCEI headquarters are located in Asheville, NC, with additional major presences in Boulder, CO; Silver Spring, MD; and Stennis Space Center, MS; as well as regional staff stationed around the country. NCEI provides end-to-end capacity for acquisition, stewardship, access, services, and assessment of its holdings in support of NOAA’s mission to “to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information…” among others.

To better support its users, NCEI uses a three-tiered program for environmental services that leverages the expertise and capabilities of partners at the national, regional, and state levels. At the first tier, NCEI provides national-level environmental monitoring and environmental data archiving, products, and services in response to national economic and environmental priorities. At the second tier, NCEI supports a Regional Climate Services (RCS) program that makes relevant and actionable products and services accessible to a range of place-based private and public sector customers. At the third tier, NCEI partners with state climate offices and the American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) to promote data access and capture user requirements.

Since 1990, NCEI’s RCS program has traditionally supported Regional Weather Records Centers (RWRCs) established at Public Universities within six geographic regions. For more than forty years, Regional Centers have produced and delivered environmental data, products, information, and services – hereafter collectively termed “products and services” – and captured user needs. By transforming, tailoring, and augmenting NCEI’s products and services, the RWRCs provide a bridge between NCEI and regional user communities, including the private sector. The RWRCs support NOAA’s mission to advance understanding of long-term weather variability and impacts through user engagement and the translation of data into usable products and services for decision makers.

RWRCs support NCEI’s effort to understand user needs for environmental information, and to translate those needs into requirements for the development of future products and services. This support complements the work of NCEI’s Information Services Branch which ensures RWRC activities align with NCEI strategic direction.

To maintain a cost-effective program, RWRCs consider existing and planned capabilities of other NOAA and non-NOAA environmental service providers to avoid redundancy. RWRCs share their expertise in observational networks, data stewardship, and information systems design with NCEI, the National

Weather Service (NWS), Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and other NOAA programs and partners to ensure an integrated approach to environmental information analysis and dissemination.

The RWRC Program directly supports the following legislative mandates and strategic plans:

● National Climate Program Act of 1978, whose mandate is to “…establish a national climate program that will assist the Nation and the world to understand and respond to natural and man-induced climate processes and their implications.” 15 U.S.C. §§ 2901- 08 (1978)

● U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990, which calls for the Federal Government to “…combine and interpret data from various sources to produce information readily usable by policymakers attempting to formulate effective strategies for preventing, mitigating, and adapting to the effects of global change.” 15 U.S.C. §§ 2921, 2931-38 (1990)

● NOAA's Mission to understand and predict changes in climate and weather, and to share that knowledge and information with others.

● NESDIS Mission to provide secure and timely access to global environmental data and information from satellites and other sources to promote and protect the nation's security, environment, economy, and quality of life.

● FY24-FY28 NCEI Strategic Plan, which includes a strategic priority to “prioritize constituent outcomes”, with a supporting activity of “sustaining core authoritative data, products, and services.” (2024)

2. Scope of Work

A. Geographic Scope

This contract is for the Southern Regional Weather Records Center (SRWRC), which is composed of TN, MS, LA, AR, OK, and TX.

The contractor providing the SRWRC capability to a region shall be physically located within the region and must serve all states, territories, and U.S.-affiliated islands in the region. An RWRC with unique capabilities may work with other RWRCs to meet user needs beyond its immediate region.

B. Program Scope

The SRWRC shall provide products and services to address regional weather records needs and issues in the context of NCEI’s broader environmental information responsibilities. This will include leveraging NOAA’s capabilities and expertise by transforming its satellite, in situ, radar, and paleoclimate data and products into regionally-tailored products and services, as appropriate, that meet the needs of users and partners and promote resilience and prosperity. The SRWRC will focus its work in four broad areas:

1. Regional engagement and user needs identification, in which the SRWRC will engage with industry, economic and environmental sectors, and public sector constituencies throughout each region to understand their long-term weather-related issues, needs, awareness, and capabilities.

2. Needs prioritization and product and tool provision, in which the SRWRC will adapt or develop, test, and sustain tools, products, and services meeting user requirements. To this end, they will support NCEI in the collection, understanding, adjudication and translation of user needs to requirements for future products and/or product modifications through regular contributions to NCEI’s requirements collection database tool.

3. Transitioning appropriate tools, products, and services to sustained NCEI operational states, in which the SRWRC will plan and execute transition projects that result in new or upgraded NCEI operational software, systems, products, services, and other capabilities.

4. Services in which the SRWRC will sustain activities supporting their mission of the provision of products and services as well as other NCEI regional and national needs.

Within these four areas SRWRC services and products are scoped to support existing NCEI Data Product Areas as well as NESDIS Products and Product Areas. Examples of NCEI Product Areas are: Climate Reports and Assessments, Surface Air Properties, Drought, Paleoclimatology, Regional Climate, Precipitation, Normals and Extremes, Climate Monitoring, Clouds, Upper Air Properties, Snow and Ice, Land Surface Properties, Satellite Sensor Data, Extreme Storms, User Engagement and Services, Information Services, Arctic Assessments, Coastal Data Development, Marine Modeling and Coastal Hazards, Coastal Indicators, Magnetic Modeling, Marine Geology and Geophysics, Ocean Climate, Ocean Profile, Regional Oceanography, Satellite Oceanography, Space Weather, and Surface Marine in-situ.

Examples of NESDIS Products or Products Areas include:

● Foundational - Imagery, Sensor Data

● Geophysical - Atmospheric Composition and Air Quality, Atmospheric Temperature, Atmospheric

Water Vapor Clouds, Lightning, Precipitation, Radiation Budget, Tropical Cyclone Characteristics, Volcanic Eruption Characteristics, Cryosphere, Fires, Floods Surface Moisture, Surface Temperature, Vegetation, Ocean Freshwater and Coasts, Space Weather

● Analytical - Climate; Weather; Oceans, Freshwater & Coasts

When appropriate, the SRWRC may engage other NOAA programs (e.g., NWS regional offices, National Integrated Drought Information System [NIDIS] early warning systems, NOAA regional collaboration teams) and NOAA partners (e.g., Climate Adaptation Partnerships/Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments [CAP/RISA], Sea Grant programs) to identify shared priorities for environmental services and facilitate opportunities for research-to-operations transition activities. The SRWRC is also encouraged to refer customers to other key partners (AASC offices, NWS) for state and local inquiries if there is a State Climatologist or NWS Weather Forecast Office with the capacity to address the need.

The SRWRC focus may further engage relevant parts of the private sector as well as regional parts of the public sector, such as state, county, and municipal governments, related associations, and indigenous communities. In all activities, the SRWRC will monitor the greater environmental service provider landscape and adjust appropriately to avoid duplication of efforts and will be required to work together with other RWRCs and collaborate to ensure regional boundaries do not hinder program outcomes.

3. Period of Performance

Base Ordering Period (5 years): September 17, 2026 –September 16, 2031

4. Ordering Guide

The Contractor will be awarded a minimum of 1 task order with a minimum value of $250,000.00. The initial task will be commonly referred to as the Core Task Order as these are the base activities which directly support NCEI, the specific Region, and/or unique National Capabilities. The NCEI Core awards will be competed and awarded simultaneously with the Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) awards.

NCEI, NWS and OAR have historically awarded additional task orders as funding was made available. The requests will be made separately from the NCEI Core Task Order and will be awarded as firm fixed price.

In support of additional task orders, besides serving its home region, an RWRC with a given region-specific primary capability may provide leadership and expertise in that function beyond its region, in concert with other RWRCs, to ensure the sector- or issue-related capability serves regional needs across the Nation as necessary.

The periods of performance shall be specified in each awarded Task Order. The period of performance shall be consistent with the funding appropriation being obligated.

5. Contractor Personnel

5.1 Key Personnel

The Contractor shall, at a minimum, hire and maintain a SRWRC Director as the key personnel. The SRWRC Director shall be the single point of contact for the RCS Program Manager (PM), Contracting Officer (CO), and Contracting Officer Representative (COR). The name of the SRWRC Director, and the name(s) of any alternate(s) who shall act for the Contractor in the absence of the SRWRC Director shall be provided to the Government as part of the Contractor's proposal. The SRWRC Director requires a PhD degree (or PhD candidate) in Earth/Environmental Sciences (Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Climatology or related field) and at least 12 years (or Master’s degree and at least 15 years) of direct experience in the field. The SRWRC Director is preferred (but not required) to be a Certified Project Management Professional and is further designated as Key Personnel by the Government. Additionally, the Contractor shall not replace the SRWRC Director without prior approval of the CO.

The SRWRC Director, or during any absence only one alternate, shall have full authority to act for the Contractor on all matters pertaining to work performed under this contract. The SRWRC Director is responsible for planning, directing, overseeing and reporting on the status of each of the Task Orders awarded.

The SRWRC Director shall:

● Be responsible for the planning, implementing, monitoring, reporting, and quality control aspects of all services performed herein (technical, contractual, administrative, and financial).

● Comply with the concept of operations framework.

● Lead and direct the work of any SRWRC supported staff to ensure the quality and completion of tasks and timely submission of deliverables to NCEI.

● Participate in regular programmatic meetings with NCEI/RCS staff as required.

● Collaborate with other RWRC Directors as required.

● Maintain awareness of other environmental services providers in the region to ensure there is no duplication of effort (i.e. Other NOAA Line Offices, NOAA Regional Collaboration Teams, State Climatologists, USDA Climate Hubs).

● Comply with regulations and policies associated with contractor badging, annual training, organizational health and emergency management protocols.

5.2 Personnel Security/Background Checks:

Contractor personnel will be screened in accordance with the requirements for Moderate Risk contracts as specified by CAM 1337.70 section 2.2 (Oct 2015); specifically, in accordance with CAR 1352.237-70, Security Processing Requirements—High or Moderate Risk Contracts (April 2010). Any access by contract personnel who are Foreign Nationals must be in accordance with the requirements of CAR 1352.237-73, Foreign National Visitor and Guest Access to Departmental Resources (APR 2010).

The full text of the CAR clauses are available at: CAR Clause Repository

The SRWRC Director position will be provided with a noaa.gov email. The SRWRC Director will not be issued Common Access Cards (CAC) as there is no requirement for physical or logical access.

5.3 NAM 1330-52.222-70 NOAA Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Prevent and Response Policy (May 2018) In accordance with NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) 202-1106, NOAA Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response Policy, it is the policy of NOAA to maintain a work environment free from sexual assault and sexual harassment. NOAA prohibits sexual assault and sexual harassment by or of any employee, supervisor, manager, contractor, vendor, affiliate, or other individual with whom NOAA employees come into contact by the virtue of their work for NOAA.

The contractor shall provide all contractor employees assigned to perform under this contract with mandatory sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention and response training in compliance with the requirements of NAO 202-1106, Section 5, Prevention Training and Awareness, as part of their initial in- processing and on an annual basis thereafter.

The initial training shall be completed within 30 business days of task order award or the date a contractor employee is assigned to perform under the contract, as applicable. Evidence of initial training by name and date completed for each contractor employee, shall be submitted to the COR or contracting officer (if no COR assigned) within 10 business days of completion.

Evidence of annual training by name and date completed for each contractor employee shall be submitted to the COR or contracting officer (if no COR assigned) no later than March 1st of each calendar year of contract performance.

The mandatory sexual assault and sexual harassment training provided by the contractor shall include the required elements set forth by NOAA’s Workplace Violence Program Manager. A link to the website including the required elements of the training is provided at:

https://www.noaa.gov/organization/acquisition-grants/noaa-workplace-harassment-training-for-contractors-and-financial.

6. Security Requirements

As the work associated with this contract will be performed on External Information Systems, if there is a requirement to transfer data, source code, or applications to be preserved, used and/or further distributed, the contractor shall follow all relevant government policies and procedures. Any data transferred to the government information system will require the contractor to coordinate with the government to complete a Submission Agreement, which will define terms, roles and responsibilities, https://www.acquisition.gov/car/part-1301-department-commerce-acquisition-regulations-system https://www.noaa.gov/organization/acquisition-grants/noaa-workplace-harassment-training-for-contractors-and-financial https://www.noaa.gov/organization/acquisition-grants/noaa-workplace-harassment-training-for-contractors-and-financial secure file transfer requirements, etc. Similarly, if contract deliverables necessitate any software source code or applications be transitioned to the government information system, the contractor shall be subject to an onboarding process similar to transitioning a project from research to operations, which includes but not limited to, an application security assessment.

7. IDIQ Deliverables and Reporting

7.1 IDIQ and Task Order Transition Reporting: In order to ensure the continuity of regional long-term weather services and operational systems following the expiration of this contract, the Contractor shall submit transition plans to the Government 3 months before the expiration of each period of performance. These plans shall describe the steps to be taken in advance of the expiration of the contract to ensure portability of contractor-development software and systems. The SRWRC shall provide NCEI with documentation of systems, processes, execution codes, transfer software, and data products derived from NCEI funds. In addition, they shall name a point of contact to work with NCEI in the event of a transition to new contractors upon expiration of the contract. This point of contact shall notify NCEI of stakeholder outreach and partner engagement activities that should continue past the expiration of the contract. All transition planning, support and documentation must be completed by the expiration of the contract, without a degradation of service.

7.2 Schedule of Deliverables for IDIQ Requirements

The table below summarizes the contractual IDIQ deliverables, the frequencies of delivery, and the recipients of the deliverables. All deliverables are to be delivered to the RCS PM, CO, and COR via email or to a common directory and notification shall be provided to the recipient listed below. Templates and file naming conventions will be provided by NCEI.

Deliverables Frequency Received By*

SASH Prevention Training Annually - No later that March 1st PM, CO, COR

Transition Plan Annually - Three Months Prior to Each Contract Period of Performance Expiration

PM, CO, COR

*PM: RCS Program Manager, CO: Contracting Officer, COR: Contracting Officer’s Representative

8. Intellectual Property and Data Rights

The SRWRC shall ensure any software tool development associated with this contract is platform independent and sufficiently documented for maximum portability.

9. Protection of Information

Contractor access to information protected under the Privacy Act is required under this PWS. Contractor employees shall safeguard this information against unauthorized disclosure or dissemination in accordance with the law and Government policy and regulation.

Contractor access to proprietary information is required under this PWS. Contractor employees shall safeguard this information against unauthorized disclosure or dissemination in accordance with the law and Government policy and regulation. Contractor employees shall safeguard this information against unauthorized disclosure or dissemination in accordance with the Privacy Act, OMB M06-16 (PII) and other pertinent laws and regulations governing the confidentiality of privileged information and Safeguarding Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) (For Official Use Only) Information. The Contractor shall ensure that all Contractor personnel having access to business or procurement sensitive information sign a NOAA Non- Disclosure Agreement.

10. Section 508 Compliance

Pursuant to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) as amended by P.L. 105-220 under Title IV (Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998) all Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) developed, procured, maintained and/or used under this contract shall be in compliance with the “Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards” set forth by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (also referred to as the “Access Board”) in 36 CFR Part 1194.

The complete text of Section 508 Standards can be accessed at http://www.access-board.gov/ or at http://www.section508.gov.

http://www.section508.gov/