DRAFT SAR Data SOW.pdf

Department of Commerce (DOC)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA)

National Weather Service (NWS)

National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)

Ocean Prediction Center (OPC)

U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC)

SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR DATA

STATEMENT OF WORK (DRAFT)

SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) DATA

IN SUPPORT OF THE U.S. NATIONAL ICE CENTER (USNIC)

BACKGROUND

The U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC) mission is to provide the highest quality, timely, accurate, and relevant snow and ice products, ice forecasting, and related environmental intelligence services to meet the strategic, operational, and tactical requirements of the United States’ interests across a global area of responsibility. The USNIC achieves this through consistent analysis of present ice conditions, forecasting the future state of ice, and by responding to requests for tactical scale information for those operating within and on top of the ice.

The USNIC is a fully integrated multi-agency center composed of the United States Navy (USN), United States Coast Guard (USCG), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A strategic decision was made jointly in 2016 to partially realign the USNIC into a new branch under the Ocean Prediction Center (OPC), a national service center of the National Weather Service (NWS), a line office of NOAA under the Department of Commerce. The USNIC mission aligns closely with the OPC mission of providing timely and accurate marine forecasts, outlooks, and warnings for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. OPC’s team of meteorologists and physical scientists collectively apply their years of cumulative specialized experience in the maritime environment to provide the world’s best marine forecasts and critical decision support services for mariners, utilizing weather and ocean models, numerous satellite platforms, and in situ observations.

Aligning the USNIC under OPC has led to a more comprehensive approach for marine hazard products and services across the maritime polar environment as well as the Great Lakes and coastal waters where ice can be found.

Traditionally, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery has been the primary imagery type to monitor conditions in the higher latitudes as SAR provides high resolution imagery capable of penetrating perpetual cloud cover and the limited illumination of the polar winter. Though the USNIC has always used large scene visible images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments, the use of higher resolution visible images has played an increasing role in the tactical support the USNIC provides. All imagery is coupled with oceanographic, meteorological, and sea ice model data and in situ observations to create a complete picture of the polar domains, greatly aiding the variety of decision support services available to US government and civilian users.

SCOPE

The USNIC requires the Contractor to deliver georeferenced GeoTIFFs of global coverage in accessible electronic format 24/7/365 and with the capability of near-real-time latency. SAR imagery’s benefits remain helpful to the persistence of USNIC’s operational programs of earth surface observation in the poor weather or illumination conditions of the polar latitudes.

Near-real-time latency is considered to be the capability of delivering images deemed to be time critical to USNIC no more than approximately four (4) hours from time of satellite acquisition.

Delivery beyond this period prohibits the USNIC from fulfilling an operational requirement to produce timely products and respond to tactical needs.

TASK DEFINITION

1. This statement of work is for the commercial purchase of imagery from satellites, specifically

SAR data. The Contractor shall deliver SAR data to the USNIC, inclusive of:

a. Acquisition scheduling, operations, and customer support in order to task satellites.

b. Ground reception, processing, and transcription of the data.

c. Staging of the data in a manner accessible to USNIC and NOAA staff.

2. Areas of interest for this data include:

a. Arctic and Antarctic regions;

b. Alaskan coastal regions including Bering Sea and selected rivers and lakes within Alaska;

c. The Great Lakes region;

d. The Chesapeake and Delaware Bay region;

e. Occasional support of field operations primarily taking place in polar and high latitude regions;

f. Occasional support of global field operations and mitigation activities during environmental and man-made hazards, disasters, and emergencies.

3. USNIC anticipates a need for 300-400 scenes a year in predominantly widebeam modes.

4. USNIC is tasked with large scale monitoring of sea ice conditions as well as offering tactical response to those operating in ice. As such, a majority of requested scenes must have an approximate swath width of >100km. A strong preference is expressed for additional product options at higher resolution and smaller swath width. High resolution imagery options of approximately 3m or less are advantageous to the USNIC’s tactical needs.

5. A strong preference is given to systems capable of dual polarization SAR images as varied polarizations yield the most information about both ice extent and ice stage of development, used as a proxy for ice thickness.

DELIVERABLES

1. The Contractor shall provide a solution to efficiently task satellites’ collection method, beam mode, and the scene captured. The system shall allow the ordering of imagery and rectification of ordering conflicts. This method may be by dedicated software, online portal, or other means. The contractor shall allow for tasking of satellites up to 4hrs in advance of image acquisition.

2. USNIC will have the ability to order imagery products and rectify ordering conflicts three (3) days in advance without incurring additional fees (i.e rush fees). USNIC should be able to cancel or augment a data order outside the same timeframe (three days) without incurring fees.

3. The method of delivery is through the internet where the Contractor connects to a server via

SFTP provided by the USNIC to enable transfer and downloading of GeoTIFF image format for USNIC’s operational use. The Contractor must maintain an alternate back-up solution for USNIC to acquire imagery in the event of USNIC server failure or product transfer issue.

Timely submission of deliverables is essential to the successful completion of imagery orders and the USNIC mission.

4. As the USNIC intermittently provides support to vessels and activities in polar regions with limited bandwidth and a need for low data latency, preference is given to contractors who can occasionally offer to host data and offer data compression options directly to USNIC employees and end users who are in the field.

5. A scene that was previously purchased, successfully delivered to the USNIC’s server, and re-requested by the government is herein defined as a “reacquired image”. If requested by the USNIC, the Contractor shall provide reacquired images within one (1) month after request.

USNIC requests and the Contractor shall provide up to thirty (30) reacquired images at no additional cost to the Government for each period of the contract (i.e. base period and each additional option period).

REPORTS

1. The Contractor shall submit a monthly billing invoice of the previous month’s images by the

7th of each month of the number of images processed and delivered to the USNIC.

2. The Contractor shall submit a monthly itemized report with the invoice summarizing regular operations of direct downlink of imagery as well as data products processed and staged for or pushed to the USNIC through the Internet and the support provided including findings, recommendations, or updates regarding the products and services being provided to the government.

3. The Contractor shall submit a report at the end of each Government fiscal year to NOAA/USNIC summarizing the research, operational and maintenance, and repairs support provided.

LICENSE

1. The data provided by the Contractor are provided to NOAA and the USNIC under license.

As such, title will not transfer to the Government.

2. USNIC License Clause: Unless otherwise specified in the collection request, imagery shall be provided to the NIC with license that includes the following statement:

“Under this license agreement, the U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC), which is composed of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Navy (USN), and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), is considered a single user. In addition, this license agreement allows for the distribution of imagery (including all spatial reference information) from the USNIC to pertinent NOAA, USN, and USCG vessels and users, to include further dissemination to all NOAA, USN, USCG, North American Ice Services (NAIS), and National Science Foundation (NSF) personnel operating in support of ice operations.”

SECURITY

1. In order to maintain security posture, the Contractor shall provide a data order solution that is capable of running on a mutually agreeable operating system and/or software environment.

2. The Contractor shall certify and approve, within two weeks (beginning during regularly scheduled business hours), all vendor operating system patches and distribute any contractor updates within the same time period to the government. This includes testing and ensuring patches do not interfere with the data solution provided.

3. ”This is a non-IT contract; therefore, the requirements of Commerce Acquisition Regulation (CAR) 1352.239-72, Security Requirements for Information Technology Resources (April 2010) and Commerce Acquisition Manual 1337.70, Department of Commerce Personnel Security Requirements (Nov 2010) do not apply. The data is made available under the service terms of this contract, which address data availability requirements.

4. The Contractor shall comply with the applicable DOC/NOAA Information Security and Privacy Policies, identify laws, rules, and regulations, standards, technology limitation, and other constraints that the Contractor shall adhere to or work under.

TRAINING AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT

1. The Contractor shall provide a fully capable staff providing responsive assistance to USNIC personnel in the event of data ordering, quality, or flow problems as well as to offer technical assistance and answer other questions that may arise. A direct support relationship is required when data acquisition problems occur or the quality of data received is in question.

2. In conjunction with the establishment of server connection, the Contractor shall provide one

(1) to two (2) days of training in the solution provided to task satellites and order products as well as in how to access the Contractor’s alternate server. This training may be for two (2) to four (4) government personnel or contractors.

3. The contractor shall provide email and telephone customer support 5 days a week, 8 hours a day to resolve data and imagery ordering, acquisition, and software or portal problems within the periods of time specified by the service level agreement below:

a. Priority 1 Tickets (Critical): approximately 2 hrs

b. Priority 2 Tickets (High): approximately 4 hrs

c. Priority 3 Tickets (Medium): approximately 1 business day

CONTRACTOR STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Materials and information furnished to the government or made by the government for the purposes of planning, financial reporting, scheduling, and evaluation shall not be used or distributed by the Contractor without explicit government permission.

2. Contract personnel shall not give any news releases or conduct media interviews concerning the work performed under this delivery order. All media inquiries will be directed to the NOAA Contracting Officer or technical representative.

DELIVERABLES AND PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

Deliverables Table

Deliverable Frequency Format Submit To

Kick Off Meeting Within 20 days of award

Via virtual meeting

Consult with COR and government representative to schedule

Training Within 40 days of the award

Via virtual meeting and/or documentation

Government personnel and contract staff

Invoices and pertinent reports

Monthly -provided by the 10th day of each month

Via email COR and any other required government representatives

Performance Requirements Summary Table Performance

Objective Performance Standard Method of

Performance Assessment

Deliverable

Imagery and data products are available to process for operational use

99% data availability per year Review of the monthly report

Monthly Report

Technical and customer support is provided

Response to support calls is provided in accordance with the Service Level Agreement identified in section 9

Review of the monthly report

Monthly Report

Near Real Time capability

Imagery and data products are received within 4hrs of acquisition time

Latency of imagery arriving on USNIC servers

Imagery and Data Products

Patches are applied to maintain IT security

Patches are applied within two weeks

Patching activity identified in the monthly report

Security Patches

CONSTRAINTS

1. Any changes to the delivery method, procedure, or format will be agreed on an ad-hoc basis between USNIC, the assigned Contracting Officer, and the Contractor.

2. Delivery of the data to USNIC must be by full scene transfer, or using compression software as required by USNIC, over the Internet.

APPENDIX 1: Definitions of Acronyms COR Contractor’s Officer Representative DOC Department of Commerce MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NAIS North American Ice Service NRT Near Real Time NSF National Science Foundation NWS National Weather Service OPC Ocean Prediction Center SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar USCG United States Coast Guard USN United States Navy USNIC United States National Ice Center VIIRS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite

(End of Statement of Work)