G LiHT SOW 04.10.pdf

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STATEMENT OF WORK

G-LiHT 2025-26

PR: #4200895850

Objective:

This procurement is for installation, testing, and operational science flights in Virginia and interior Alaska.

Background:

The contractor will support an airborne field campaign led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS) to inventory forests of Interior Alaska. Forests of Interior Alaska represent approximately 15% of all US forest land, but have never been inventoried successfully because of their remoteness.

The inventory is critical not only for forestry management, but for assessing biofuels, wildlife habitat, changes in species composition and quantification of stress and mortality due to fire, insect, disease, and drought. Most of Interior Alaska is not easily accessible, and even a single ground plot costs about $8000 to measure because it requires helicopter access. NASA and United States Geological Survey (USGS) formed a partnership in 2014 to develop design-based methods that would use a sparse density of ground plots augmented with multi-sensor airborne and space-based data to produce inventories with comparable estimates and variances to the rest of the USFS’ National Forest Inventory and Analysis Program.

The primary purpose of this contract is airborne data acquisitions in the Upper and Lower Yukon Forest Inventory Units of Alaska. Local flights in Virginia, near NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), will be used to calibrate instruments and perform functional science test flights before deployment to Alaska. NASA Goddard’s Lidar, Hyperspectral and Thermal (G- LiHT) multi-sensor airborne imager (https://gliht.gsfc.nasa.gov/) will be flown on a twin-turbine fixed wing aircraft, A90 King Air or equivalent, maintained and operated by contractor. In Alaska, flights will be conducted at a nominal altitude of 335m (1100’) AGL and 130 kts over ground plots along parallel survey transects spaced about 9 km apart (~27,000 km total).

Aircraft-Instrument integration hardware for G-LiHT shall be designed and fabricated by contractor under the guidance of NASA scientists and approval of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA Flight Safety Review Board.

Requirements:

1) NASA airworthiness and safety approvals for an airborne campaign in Virginia and Alaska are linked to this aircraft

2) A twin-engine platform with up to 4000 lb payload and 1000 nm range is required for a quick transit to Alaska and safe operations in mountainous terrain.

3) A large (23 x 25 inch), nadir-looking camera port is required to accommodate the field of view of G-LiHT’s instruments.

4) Designated Engineering Representative (DER) and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved surface mount on top of the aircraft is required for the GPS antenna and cosine diffusor (Ocean Optics CC-3, https://www.oceanoptics.com/accessories/sampling-accessories/cosine-correctors/) that is used to measure downwelling solar irradiance spectra.

5) Aircraft provides up to 800 W of auxiliary power to power G-LiHT instruments and data acquisition system.

6) Integration hardware, test flights, and airworthiness and safety approvals (e.g., stress reports, FAA forms 337 and 8110-3, and NASA Flight Readiness Review) are completed for use of G-LiHT on this aircraft. (NOTE: Instrument installations and NASA airworthiness and safety approvals are linked to specific providers, aircraft and tail numbers).

7) Provider is FAA Part 135 Certified, as required by NASA Procedural Requirements for Aircraft Operations and Management (NPR 7900.3D).

8) Aircraft provider maintains and operates multiple aircraft of this type, or contingency in place to reduce risk associated with scheduling conflicts and maintenance issues associated with long-duration deployments in remote locations.

9) Provider has prior experience flying remote sensing campaigns for NASA, and NASA has approved Commercial Aviation Services (CAS) contractor through on-site inspection.

10) All Contractor flight crew and Qualified Non-Crewmembers shall comply with OCHMO-STD-1880.1, NASA Aviation Medical Certification Standards, which includes a Class 1 medicals for Captain and First Officer pilot.

11) Pilots will be expected to follow terrain and flight lines in complex, mountainous areas of interior Alaska using on-board altimeters and Garmin Aero 760 to within ~50 meters (164’).

12) Close proximity to NASA GSFC (<200 mi) is required so sensitive instruments can be hand carried and Installation and Testing (I&T) can be supervised by G-LiHT instrument scientists.

Place of Performance:

The aircraft will be available for a total of 4 days for install and uninstall at a location near NASA GSFC (<200 mi), to facilitate transportation of sensitive instrumentation to the contractor’s base of operations. NASA will provide delivery of G-LiHT to the contractor, and installation of hardware shall be conducted at the contractor's facility. Personnel, fabrication, and testing resources will be provided as necessary by the contractor.

The install will conclude with a ~2-hour instrument test flight for boresight alignment. Local instrument test flights in the Virginia area may also be required, depending on science and calibration needs. Pilots will have a Class 1 and high-risk medical, and contractor will comply with NASA Procedural Requirements for Aircraft Operations and Management. Pilot will be expected to navigate and follow flight lines on a Garmin Aera 760 and will be responsible for coordinating and communicating with Local Air Traffic Control.

The aircraft will transit to/from Alaska (~40 flight hours) and acquire G-LiHT science data in Interior Alaska (~180 science flight hours) during June-August 2025, with June-August 2026 as a backup. The science flights will be conducted at a nominal altitude of 335 m AGL and air speed of 130 kt under daylight VFR conditions, and will require terrain following in remote and mountainous landscapes.