Amendment 3_BAA-NOAA-3DWinds-2022_FINAL.pdf

Measuring the Atmospheric Wind Profile: Call for Studies and Field Measurement Campaigns

Broad Agency Announcement

Amendment 3, BAA-NOAA-3DWinds-2022

May 20 April 29, 2022

Office of System Architecture & Advanced Planning (OSAAP) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Department of Commerce (DOC)

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Table of Contents

1. OVERVIEW 3

GENERAL INFORMATION 3

NAICS Code 3 Agency Name 3 Development Opportunity Title 3 Announcement Type and Date 3 White Paper Due Date 3 Eligible Offerors 4 Research and Development Areas of Interest 5 Award Information 5

2. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION 6

3. WHITE PAPER GUIDELINES 14

3.1 SUBMISSION PREPARATION 14

3.1.1 Quad Chart Guidelines 15

3.1.2 White Paper Guidelines 16

3.2 EVALUATION INFORMATION 16

4. FULL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS (STAGE 2) 17

5. AGENCY CONTACTS 17

APPENDIX 1 Definition Of Technology Readiness Levels 18

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1. OVERVIEW

This is a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) posted in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 35.016. The United States Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental and Scientific Data and Information Service (NESDIS), Office of Satellite Architecture and Advanced Planning (OSAAP) is requesting submission of white papers to conduct studies of instrument concepts and/or integrated mission concepts in support of needs for non-real time global wind profile weather data to support the needs of the space based environmental monitoring community; in particular, National Weather Service Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems. This BAA is exploratory only and currently there is no planned mission for 3D winds.

This announcement shall be posted for a total of thirty-nine (39) twenty-eight (28) calendar days, and all submissions are due by 3:00PM Eastern Standard Time (EST), 7 June 27 May, 2022. All pre-submission inquiries shall be submitted in writing to the Contract Specialist by 18 May, 2022. The program offices and technical points of contact may not be contacted directly and will refer all inquiries to the Contracting Officer. Additional submission instructions are provided at Section 3.

GENERAL INFORMATION

NAICS Code

The NAICS code for this BAA will be 541715 – Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology).

Agency Name

United States Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental and Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS), Office of Satellite Architecture and Advanced Planning (OSAAP)

Development Opportunity Title

Measuring the Atmospheric Wind Profile: Call for Studies and Field Measurement Campaigns

Announcement Type and Date

Amendment 3, Broad Agency Announcement (BAA-NOAA-3DWinds-2022); posted 20 May 29 April, 2022

White Paper Due Date

7 June 27 May, 2022 3:00 PM EST

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Eligible Offerors

This BAA is open to ALL responsible sources in accordance with FAR 2.1 Definitions, which states that “Responsible prospective contractor means a contractor that meets the standards in 9.104.” Offerors may include single entities or teams from private sector organizations, Government laboratories, and academic institutions.

To be eligible for award, a prospective recipient must meet certain minimum standards pertaining to financial resources, ability to comply with the performance schedule, prior record of performance, integrity, organization, experience, operational controls, technical controls, technical skills, facilities, and equipment.

Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government entities (Government/National laboratories, military educational institutions, etc.) are subject to applicable direct competition limitations and cannot submit a response to this BAA in any capacity unless they address the following conditions:

FFRDCs

1. Must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is not otherwise available from the private sector.

2. Must provide a letter on letterhead from their sponsoring organization citing the specific authority establishing their eligibility to propose to government solicitations and compete with industry. This letter must be provided at the time of the Offeror’s white paper submission.

3. Must demonstrate compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement and terms and conditions. This information is required for any FFRDCs proposing to be primes or subcontractors.

Government Entities

1. Government entities must clearly demonstrate that the work is not otherwise available from the private sector and provide written documentation citing the specific statutory authority (as well as, where relevant, contractual authority) establishing their ability to propose to government solicitations. Specific supporting regulatory guidance, together with evidence of agency approval will be required to establish eligibility. NOAA will consider eligibility submissions on a case-by-case basis; however, the burden to prove eligibility for all team members rests solely with the Offeror.

The Government and FFRDC entities are encouraged to consider teaming arrangements with responsible sources from academia and industry. Offerors who propose a teaming arrangement must name which organization will operate as the main point-of-contact or lead for the team.

Both the white papers, and, if later requested, the proposal, must be submitted by the team lead organization. A description of each team member’s role in the team must be included. In the event of an award to a team proposal, the award will be made to the team lead (Prime) organization named in the proposal for the purposes of contract administration. The Prime

BAA-NOAA-3DWinds-2022 5 organization will be responsible for putting in place all the sub-contracts and other teaming arrangements.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Institutions (MI), Small Business concerns, Small Disadvantaged Business concerns, Women-Owned Small Business concerns, Veteran-Owned Small Business concerns, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business concerns, 8(a) Business concerns, and HUBZone Small Business concerns are encouraged to submit white papers, and to join other entities as team members in submitting white papers.

Small business subcontracting plans will be required from any large business proposals selected for negotiation or further solicitation/award in accordance with the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Commerce Acquisition Regulation (CAR), Commerce Acquisition Manual (CAM) and NOAA provisions/clauses/regulations.

Research and Development Areas of Interest

The two objectives under this BAA are described in Section 2.

Award Information The total targeted budget for both objectives under this Project is a total of $4M. for up to two years, with $3M reserved for Objective A studies and $1M reserved for Objective B.

NESDIS envisions awarding a total of up to three (3) study awards (1-3) awards for both objectives combined as a result of under this BAA. Each study will have a duration, with each one having a duration of up to two years, with a technical report as the final deliverable, as well as intermediate progress reports. The government may award zero, one, or multiple study contracts under this BAA, dependent on the applicability of the White Papers to the technical need, and congressional appropriations. Subject to the availability of funding, offerors whose White Papers receive a favorable evaluation may be invited via e-mail to submit a Full Proposal.

This BAA should not be construed as a commitment or authorization to incur costs in anticipation of a grant, cooperative agreement, other transaction, or contract. Contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, or other transactions and agreements may be awarded, as appropriate. At this time, it is anticipated that each study award will result in a firm-fixed-price contract.

The Government is not responsible for any costs incurred in the preparation of a submission in response to this BAA.

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2. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TECHNICAL

DESCRIPTION

A. Background and Overview:

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is interested in exploring technologies that allow for the measurement of atmospheric wind profiles (3D winds) from space.

3D winds are defined as measurements of the horizontal wind vector distributed throughout the vertical and horizontal extent of the atmosphere. According to multiple studies, including the NOAA NSOSA study and the NASA/NOAA decadal survey, this measurement is considered a major gap in our space-based observing system and is deemed to have a great potential to improve the performances of several NOAA environmental prediction systems including global Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). These technologies could include passive and/or active based observing systems on a variety of platforms and constellations.

Note that this BAA is for the exploration of possibilities for a future state and not a mission itself.

I.e., this is exploratory only and currently there is no planned mission for 3D winds.

B. Scope and Objective:

The overall objective of this project is to identify technologies with the capability to achieve the goal above of measuring 3Dwinds, determine the status of these technologies today and how they are projected to evolve in the near future, and perform a value/feasibility assessment of them. For this purpose, and under the NOAA Joint Venture (JV) program, we are looking to leverage technologies and, jointly with other partners, achieve two objectives through this project:

Objective (A): Assess the capabilities of various technologies that currently exist to observe 3D winds from orbital or sub-orbital platforms (e.g., airborne, stratospheric balloon-based, etc.) in order to gain a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of these technologies and the characteristics of their measurements to meet NOAA needs for future space platforms. These technologies could for example include several types of active wind lidars, and a combination of passive infrared and/or microwave sounders for moisture tracking, etc. Projects sought in this category could either would conduct the demonstration of 3D winds observing systems on orbital/suborbital airborne or balloon platforms, or make use of existing 3D winds data gathered from previous measurement field campaigns. We anticipate that the projects in this category will collect data for a long enough period of time to allow for a proper assessment of the quality and potential usefulness of the data. The assessment should be done jointly with the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) team (the offeror should describe the assessment capabilities it brings to the table as part of this project, and describe the expected support from the Government team). The assessment would involve intercomparison

BAA-NOAA-3DWinds-2022 7 with standard wind measurement equipment (e.g., in situ radiosondes, ocean buoys, etc.) that serve as independent sources of measurements. Projects that would look at one particular technology are of interest. Projects and studies that could potentially look at several technologies simultaneously, to perform a comparative assessment, would also be of great interest, as they might allow the possibility for the collection of collocated datasets (from different technologies), which would help us understand the respective characteristics of the measurements.

Objective (B): Perform studies to provide concepts of different approaches to measure 3D winds from space to meet NOAA performance needs as described in the Table 2 below. Studies in this category would evaluate different types of sensors and technologies (active sensors such as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), Doppler radar, passive sounders, combinations thereof, etc), different constellations, and different platforms. These studies should highlight the benefit, if any, of the proposed concept(s), to provide added capabilities beyond 3D winds. These studies, in contrast to the ones in category (A), are theoretical studies, so they don’t require acquisition of actual measurements. They should however include an estimate of the expected overall performance, as well as the maturity level of the overall concept (Technology Readiness Level (TRL)), as well as an estimate of the cost expected of the mission and sensor concept. These studies could include concept designs aiming at the maturation of certain sensor components as well as mission concepts which will allow a space deployment in the future (2030-2050 timeframe is the target for an operational system). The studies will be coordinated with the NESDIS team to allow an assessment of how these concepts might satisfy the NOAA needs, using internal assessment tools (using standard interfaces to capture the performances). See section D.a, below.

NESDIS will use the results of these studies to:

1. Objective A: Gain a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the different technologies available to measure 3D winds and the characteristics of their measurements to meet NOAA performance needs. See Table 2 in Section E for definitions of minimum NOAA resolution and accuracy needs. In addition, they will allow NESDIS to conduct an assessment of how these technologies might satisfy NOAA needs (based on field campaign data). The offeror will be expected to provide information about these performances in a standard format, a template of which will be provided by the NOAA team.

2. Objective B: Provide information to assist NESDIS in developing recommendations on how to include 3D wind requirements, and their implementation, in the next generation space architecture planning. See Table 2 in Section E for a definition of NOAA performance needs. The offeror will be expected to provide information about these performances in a standard format, a template of which will be provided by the NOAA internal team.

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Interested parties should feel free to propose projects addressing objective (A), objective (B), or both. The two will be considered independently by the Government.

C. Technical Requirements:

3D winds are defined as measurements of the horizontal wind vector distributed throughout the vertical and horizontal extent of the atmosphere. This definition accounts for the inclusion of surface winds (e.g., ocean surface vector winds) and winds above the troposphere. We recognize that ocean surface vector winds are measured routinely with scatterometers and passive radiometers and will continue to be measured in that way in the foreseeable future. The scope of this project is therefore to focus on the feasibility of measuring winds primarily in the rest of the atmosphere but if technologies exist to measure the atmospheric wind down to the surface level, this would be of interest as well. It is worth noting that the performance of 3D winds is viewed here as composed of multiple attributes:

(1) Accuracy and precision of the wind speed and direction (or U and V components),

(2) Vertical coverage (or extent) of the measurement,

(3) Measurement sensitivity

(4) Measurement validity range (i.e. whether the measurement saturates at certain values or not),

(5) Temporal refresh,

(6) Spatial coverage, including whether the measurement is possible over all surfaces or just over specific surfaces like oceans, and whether it can be made in all weather conditions or just in clear, cloudy, and/or aerosols-present conditions.

(7) Spatial resolution,

(8) Vertical resolution,

(9) Measurement latency.

Objective A Projects:

Projects in support of Objective A are meant to deploy orbital/suborbital (such as airborne or balloon based) sensors and collect data and, as a result, are not expected to provide assessment of all the performance attributes listed above. However, they should address as many as possible to provide insight as to how their performance might scale, or need to scale, to address NOAA’s requirements from a space-based platform.

The tasks for this objective include:

1) Planning materials of the field campaign to collect 3D winds data.

2) Orbital or sub-orbital flight demonstration (e.g., airborne, stratospheric balloon-based, etc.) of one or more 3D wind technologies and data collection

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3) Comparison of demonstration data against data from standard wind measurement equipment (e.g., in situ radiosondes, ocean buoys, etc.). Based on the comparison, evaluate the technology against NOAA’s performance needs for accuracy and resolution (as indicated in Table 2). Note that these reference datasets can be obtained from existing sources and their deployment is not necessarily expected to be part of the project here.

4) Report: As part of the final report, the Offeror shall develop a Technical Data Package that describes the platforms (i.e. airborne or balloon) used for demonstration of 3D winds observing systems, types of data collected, period of time for data collection, and the results from Task 3 above.

The Offeror shall include (in the white paper) a description of the technical work required, technical and programmatic risks (including potential cost drivers), and the overall schedule to meet the Objective A. The Offeror shall identify the total cost for conducting the demonstration of 3D winds observing systems on appropriate airborne or balloon platforms and developing the Technical Data Package. Additionally, a cost profile, year-by-year in constant year dollars, is required.

Objective B Projects:

Studies in support of Objective B are expected to provide quantitative estimates (or at least inform) all of the different attributes listed in Section C. Assessment of the performance using the concept on its own or in combination with other observing systems and/or other data, are both considered acceptable. A standard interface to capture these performances and their attributes will be provided by the Government.

The Offeror shall include (in the white paper) a description of the technical work required, technical and programmatic risks (including potential cost drivers), and the overall schedule to meet the concept provided in Objective B.

The Offeror shall identify the estimate of the cost expected for of the study concept and the Technical Data Package. Additionally, a cost profile, year-by-year in constant year dollars, is required. It is preferred, but optional, for the white paper to include a rough order of magnitude for the cost of the concept developed in response to Objective B.

As part of the study, and documented in the final report, the Offeror shall develop a concept report that describes the recommended optimal approach to measuring 3D winds from space including the different sensors, different constellations, on different platforms.

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The Offeror shall suggest alternatives of different approaches to measure 3D winds from space to meet NOAA Performance Needs (See Table 2), including the potential cost savings, benefits, etc.

The Offeror shall identify the estimate of the expected overall performance and the maturity level of the overall concept (TRL level) and/or individual components.

The Offeror shall indicate the ongoing and needed work to bring all components to the maturation level to allow a space deployment in the future (2030-2050 timeframe is the target for an operational system).

The white paper submitted by the of the offeror should give enough information on how and when these elements above will be addressed during the project, if selected.

D. Coordination, Deliverables Requirements:

a. Coordination Requirements:

The Offeror will meet virtually with a team of Government experts on a monthly basis. During this meeting, the Offeror will provide an overview of work completed, any preliminary or final results, planned work, and any problems encountered. The team of Government experts will provide feedback and guidance to the Offeror. In addition:

- Monthly Status Reports, including: Activities performed during the reporting month, Problems Encountered and Corrective Actions, Planned Activities for Next Month, Milestone Schedule and Status, and Budget Status

- Kick-Off Meeting: A kick-off meeting will be held (Face to face, WebEx/telecom, or a combination). Its objective is to ensure the project plans, schedule, and deliverables are understood, and to answer any questions that may arise as part of the process.

- Mid-Year Status Meeting: The mid-year status meeting is intended to provide current project status, discuss the approach towards completing the project, and agree on any adjustments to the work to be completed during the remainder of the project.

- End-Year Status Meeting: The end-year status meeting is intended to provide final project status, discuss the approach towards completing the project, and agree on any adjustments to the work to be completed during the remainder of the project.

- For the quality and impact assessment aspect of this effort, the offeror should describe the capabilities that the offeror will provide as part of this project, and what the expected contribution from the NOAA internal assessment team is.

- Scientific Presentation: A general description, open to the public, of the project findings and main results to be given to the NESDIS Systems performance Assessment Team (SAT) for dissemination of results to a wider audience.

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b. Communications Requirements

The Offeror shall maintain proactive, open, and responsive communication with the Government. Regular communication shall include support of Programmatic and Technical Interchanges taking the form of email, recurring teleconferences, etc., as required. The Offeror shall support in-person reviews at the customer location or Offeror’s facilities, as required.

Teleconferences shall take place once every month to discuss status and interchange information.

c. Period of Performance

The period of performance will be specified by the Offeror, but not to exceed twenty four (24) months from Authorization to Proceed (ATP). This period of performance includes up to twenty three (23) months to perform the project and produce the deliverables, plus one month for follow up questions and/or clarifications.

d. Government Furnished Equipment (GFE)/Government Furnished Services (GFS)

The Government does not expect to provide GFE or GFS for this work but plans to provide guidance to the offeror to orient the work toward maximizing the positive impact on NOAA systems. If the offeror expects a GFE or GFS for the completion of this effort, a description of these should be included in the proposal.

e. Deliverables

The Offeror shall provide the following reports and Contract Data Requirement List (CDRLS) to address the items listed in this call.

Table 1

CDRL # Name

0001A Technical Data Package

Monthly briefings

Kickoff, mid- and end of projects briefings

3D winds data as collected for this project and code readers to exploit them

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Data from standard wind measurement equipment (e.g., in situ radiosondes, ocean buoys, etc.)

Results of validation, impact experiments.

Open briefing to the NOAA Systems Performance Assessment Team (SAT)

Description of the 3D winds instrument concept as used in this project

Description and recommendations on a space version of the 3D winds sensor concept

f. Reporting Content

The content of the report(s) should address the different items described in the R&D Technical description section.

E. Description of 3D Winds Needs

Table 2 below describes the different characteristics of the 3D winds profile measurement capability, for type B studies.

Table 2. Trade ranges for 3D Wind Measurements (for type B studies)

Attribute Minimum Mid-Point Maximum

Minimum Coverage Area Close to global if possible, regional gaps acceptable

Global Global

Update Rate¹ 24 hrs 6 hrs 3 hrs

Latency² 165 min 60 min 30 min

Horizontal Resolution (nadir)

400 km 40 km 15 km

Vertical Resolution 4 km 2 km 0.5 km

Uncertainty: Direction ± 15 Deg ± 10 Deg ± 5 Deg

Uncertainty: Speed 10 m/s 5 m/s 2 m/s or 10%

Vertical Extent Mid-troposphere to just above tropopause

Surface to just above tropopause

Surface to Stratopause

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¹Update rate is the time interval between successive collections of data from the same geographical point on, or above, the surface of the earth.

²Data Latency is defined as the period from the time of observation of all requisite data by the satellite until the data product produced from those date is available to the user at the distribution system.

F. Institutions and Small Business

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Institutions (MI), Small Business concerns, Small Disadvantaged Business concerns, Women-Owned Small Business concerns, Veteran-Owned Small Business concerns, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business concerns, 8(a) Business concerns, and HUB Zone Small Business concerns are encouraged to submit a response and to join other entities as team members in submitting responses.

G. Reference:

1. NOAA Satellite Observing System Architecture (NSOSA) study.

2. World Meteorological Organization Global Observing System (WIGOS) 2040 vision.

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3. WHITE PAPER GUIDELINES

The application process will be divided into two steps:

● Stage 1: White Paper

● Stage 2: Request for Proposal or interagency agreements as applicable, for selected

White Papers.

White Papers (WPs) are due 7 June 27 May, 2022. Subject to the availability of funding, offerors whose White Papers receive a favorable evaluation may be invited via e-mail to submit a Full Proposal. The instructions for the Full Proposal package will be provided in the invitation email.

Offerors are encouraged to submit White Paper(s) in either of the objectives, or both. If Offerors want to submit white papers for both objectives, or multiple concepts, they shall submit a separate White Paper for each objective and each concept. Each White Paper will be evaluated independently.

3.1 SUBMISSION PREPARATION

Interested Offerors shall submit a White Paper that meets the mission criteria described in Section 2. The initial submission is limited to a cover page, one-page Quad Chart, and White Paper not to exceed five (5) pages. This results in a submission packet not to exceed seven (7) pages. If submissions exceed these limitations, only those pages previously defined will be reviewed.

For each distinct White Paper submittal, combine all files and forms into a single searchable PDF file before submitting.

The document must be submitted in accordance with the preparation guidance below. The document should describe the effort in sufficient detail to allow evaluation of the concept's technical merit and its potential contribution to the NOAA mission.

White paper submissions must remain valid for six months from the submission deadline.

Offerors will be notified via e-mail if their submission is or is not being considered for Stage 2.

Electronic Submissions are due 3:00 PM, 7 June May 27, 2022. Late submissions will not be considered. All submissions shall be submitted electronically to both:

● Contract Specialist, Bryton Curtis, via email: bryton.curtis@noaa.gov

● Contracting Officer, Gabriela Bravo, via email: gabriela.bravo@noaa.gov

The government reserves the right to reconsider un-selected white papers evaluated during the first round of submissions for award up until 6 June 26 May, 2023, without the opening of additional rounds of white paper submissions.

mailto:bryton.curtis@noaa.gov mailto:gabriela.bravo@noaa.gov

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The government reserves the right to open additional rounds of white paper submissions.

Additional requests, if applicable, will be posted on SAM.gov as an amendment to this posting no later than 6 9 June, 2023.

IMPORTANT: The subject line of the email submission should consist of the announcement number, area of interest number, and purpose of the email (e.g., BAA-NOAA-3DWinds-2022, Concept <name>, White Paper Submission). White Papers do not require any special forms, but must be submitted in the following format:

Single PDF file as an email attachment

Page Size: 8 ½ x 11” with 1” Margins

Spacing – single

Font – Times New Roman size 12 font or equivalent

The file should not exceed 10 Megabytes of storage space. Movie and sound file attachments, URL Links, or other additional files, will not be accepted.

Classification: All Quad Chart and White Paper submissions must be UNCLASSIFIED.

3.1.1 Quad Chart Guidelines

A quad chart must contain the following information and be positioned in a landscape view. Any quad chart submitted that exceeds the one-page limit will not be read or evaluated. The following components are required:

Heading: Title, BAA #, Objective Responding To, Development Area of Interest, Technical/Administrative point of contact (Name, Email, Phone), Company’s Name & Address.

Please note that the Title of the Project should be different than that of the Area of Interest.

Upper Left:

● Objective: should be 2-3 sentences describing the objective and methodology.

● Description of effort: a few bullet points noting the primary scientific challenges addressed

Lower left: Benefits of proposed technology, challenges, and maturity of technology research area

Upper right: Picture or graphic illustrating the research or the concept

Lower Right: Milestones, period of performance, total ROM cost estimate for the study.

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3.1.2 White Paper Guidelines

The White Paper shall describe the Offeror’s concept’s ability to address the need and requirements detailed in the appropriate part of Section 2. Merely restating the minimum study objectives is not sufficient. The core components of the White Paper include a detailed explanation of the concepts being proposed, including definitions of how the Offeror plans to meet the requirements for that given concept, including but not limited to:

1. What concept they are proposing to study and demonstrate

2. What they plan to accomplish in the project timeframe

3. What they plan to deliver at the end of the project

4. How their concept contributes to the requirements laid out in Section 2 regarding the

NESDIS and NOAA mission

With regard to the instrument to be demonstrated in Objective A, the Offeror must supply sufficient data to justify the proposed Technology Readiness Level (TRL) maturity of the candidate instrument.

The price portion of the white paper shall contain a high-level estimate on the work intended to be completed during the study. A detailed price proposal will be required if an Offeror moves to Stage 2 of the selection process and is issued a Request for Proposal (RFP).

Any applicable past performance references should also be provided as part of the white paper submission if they are relevant to the proposed work plan. This information will be excluded from the page limit, and shall follow the same format described above for the white paper.

White Papers that are outside the scope of the BAA may be returned to the Offeror.

3.2 EVALUATION INFORMATION

Submissions will be evaluated in accordance with the following evaluation criteria:

A. Technical Merit (Proposed concept and how the various technical aspects as described in Section 2 are addressed)

a. The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s concepts as defined in their White Paper for their ability to meet the requirements as defined in the appropriate part of Section 2. If the Offeror submits multiple White Papers, the Government will evaluate each study submission as independent studies and one submission will not affect the evaluation of the other submission.

B. Price Factor (Overall price of the proposed effort and supporting information for assessing the cost effectiveness of the project)

a. Price will be evaluated for Price Reasonableness and Price realism, if applicable.

b. Cost and Pricing Data for the project may be required for evaluations purposes in

Stage 2.

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C. Past Performance (Prior Experience of the vendor in developing similar technologies and leading similar projects)

a. Objective A: Offerors must have an acceptable level of past performance for the type of technology to be considered.

b. Objective B: Offerors must have an acceptable level of past performance for a similar type of study to be considered.

The Technical Merit factor is more important than the Past Performance factor. Price is the least important evaluation factor.

The Government anticipates awarding multiple contracts in each Objective, but reserves the right to award no contracts, or a combination of contracts or contract options for study work based upon availability of funds and the needs of the NESDIS Portfolio.

4. FULL PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS (STAGE 2)

Note that Full Proposals will not be accepted under the BAA unless requested. If an Offeror’s concept is selected for funding based on the evaluation of their White Paper, an Invitation for Full Proposal will be e-mailed to the Offeror. Stage 2 is subject to FAR 52.232-18 -- Availability of Funds.

5. AGENCY CONTACTS

Contract Specialist: Bryton Curtis, bryton.curtis@noaa.gov

Selecting Official, Contracting Officer: Gabriela Bravo, gabriela.bravo@noaa.gov mailto:bryton.curtis@noaa.gov mailto:gabriela.bravo@noaa.gov

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APPENDIX 1: Definition of Technology Readiness Levels

TRL 1 Basic principles observed and reported: Transition from scientific research to applied research. Essential characteristics and behaviors of systems and architectures. Descriptive tools are mathematical formulations or algorithms.

TRL 2 Technology concept and/or application formulated: Applied research. Theory and scientific principles are focused on specific application area to define the concept. Characteristics of the application are described. Analytical tools are developed for simulation or analysis of the application.

TRL 3 Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof-of-concept: Proof of concept validation. Active Research and Development (R&D) is initiated with analytical and laboratory studies. Demonstration of technical feasibility using breadboard or brassboard implementations that are exercised with representative data.

TRL 4 Component/subsystem validation in laboratory environment: Standalone prototyping implementation and test. Integration of technology elements. Experiments with full-scale problems or data sets.

TRL 5 System/subsystem/component validation in relevant environment: Thorough testing of prototyping in representative environment. Basic technology elements integrated with reasonably realistic supporting elements. Prototyping implementations conform to target environment and interfaces.

TRL 6 System/subsystem model or prototyping demonstration in a relevant end-to-end environment (ground or space): Prototyping implementations on full-scale realistic problems.

Partially integrated with existing systems. Limited documentation available. Engineering feasibility fully demonstrated in actual system application.

TRL 7 System prototyping demonstration in an operational environment (ground or space): System prototyping demonstration in operational environment. System is at or near scale of the operational system, with most functions available for demonstration and test.

Well integrated with collateral and ancillary systems. Limited documentation available.

TRL 8 Actual system completed and "mission qualified" through test and demonstration in an operational environment (ground or space): End of system development. Fully integrated with operational hardware and software systems. Most user documentation, training documentation, and maintenance documentation completed. All functionality tested in simulated and operational scenarios. Verification and Validation (V&V) completed.

TRL 9 Actual system "mission proven" through successful mission operations (ground or space): Fully integrated with operational hardware/software systems. Actual system has been thoroughly demonstrated and tested in its operational environment. All documentation completed. Successful operational experience. Sustaining engineering support in place.

3.2 EVALUATION INFORMATION