Attachment_1_-_SOW.pdf

SOLICITATION NO: N00173-RFI-AL05

Statement of Work

R&D Efforts for Development and Application of New and Existing Techniques for Remote Sensing

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Remote Sensing Division, NRL Code 7200, has an active program of research in the remote sensing, modeling, and scientific analysis of the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, and of space (astronomy). The Division designs, tests, and operates space-based, air-based, and surface and subsurface sensors, and develops new remote sensing capabilities and methods of analyzing data. Current projects include: spectral imaging for the remote sensing of coastal water and of land surfaces; passive polarimetric microwave sensing of the ocean surface (WindSat, APMIR, and follow-on sensors); passive near ultraviolet (NUV), visible and near infrared (VIS/NIR) and passive microwave/millimeter-wave sensing of the atmosphere; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); bistatic radar and reflectometry; radio, IR and optical astronomy; passive sensing of direct and diffuse near-surface sunlight; and laboratory and field studies of hydrosols, aerosols, foam and bubbles.

The Division performs modeling, field and laboratory experiments, calibrates and validates sensors, carries out feasibility studies, designs instruments, experiments and algorithms, and performs simulations and scientific analyses.

2.0 SCOPE

The purpose of this Statement of Work (SOW) is to acquire scientific and engineering R&D expertise to support the Remote Sensing Division’s (RSD) development and application of new and existing techniques for remote sensing (including astronomy).

Tasks may include: concept design and feasibility studies; design, assembly and testing of components, equipment and instrumentation; laboratory, in-field or in-flight (in-air or in-space) calibration, validation and operation of deployed systems; analysis of engineering and scientific data; and the development and use of algorithms for analyzing the data. The Contractor shall provide on/off-site multi-disciplinary scientific and engineering expertise to support these activities.

3.0 REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall provide technical and scientific expertise within the scope of this SOW. Task deliverables will consist of scientific and engineering technical reports, any hardware that is fabricated or purchased under this SOW, scientific and engineering algorithms and software that is developed or purchased under this SOW, and documentation and data as defined by the Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) of the base contract. The tasks shall involve activities both on-site (at NRL) and off-site, and may require extensive travel.

The government will provide facilities for field or laboratory experiments, and for assembling, testing, calibrating, and using hardware developed or purchased under this

SOW.

The Contractor shall perform work assignments and provide all necessary personnel to accomplish the work described below.

3.1 General Requirements

The contractor shall perform and document analyses and studies to support the development of new or improved techniques of remote sensing, and shall develop and operate the associated algorithms, databases and equipment for laboratory and field use.

The studies may include feasibility studies, design studies for equipment or experiments, trade studies, simulations, and analyses of data. The contractor shall conduct research into new and emerging technologies and shall produce reports documenting their features and applicability to ongoing NRL programs. The contractor shall participate in the development and production of proposals for new programs of opportunity that may include special study and research programs in remote sensing.

The contractor shall participate in laboratory and field experiments and operations, maintain databases of results, and support the relevant user communities. The latter activity shall include providing logistical support for NRL-sponsored technical meetings associated with the contractor’s technical tasks. The contractor shall assist in the assembly and configuring and/or calibration of equipment for laboratory and field use.

(In the context of this SOW, “field use” includes ground-based, airborne, in-water, and in-space operation.)

All work will be unclassified. Some work will be subject to ITAR or have proprietary restrictions. In the latter case, the contractor will be required to execute a non-disclosure agreement.

The contractor may subcontract or use a consultant for a portion of the efforts defined within this SOW, to obtain specialized expertise. The contractor shall obtain the concurrence of the COR before subcontracting or using a consultant for any effort defined within this SOW.

The contractor shall provide management oversight to deliver the science and engineering expertise and products described herein. The contractor shall provide the logistics, procurement resources, and facilities necessary to purchase, control, and report on the equipment, materials, supplies, and software required for the performance of the efforts defined herein.

To accomplish the work, the contractor shall have (i) office space and meeting facilities within the Washington, DC locale; (ii) document duplication and facsimile transmission resources; (iii) graphic and documentation reproduction resources; and (iv) internet connectivity. Contractor personnel shall have the capability to interact with NRL’s technical and management staff on a daily basis.

Because the successful performance of this SOW requires close coordination, meetings, and interaction with the NRL, other Government, military, academic, and private sector organizations, the contractor shall establish the appropriate non-disclosure agreements as needed to ensure acceptable interface support.

The tasks may result in scientific and/or technical publications. Documentation generated by the contractor and/or its subcontractors (e.g., notebooks, reports, memoranda, presentation materials, technical papers, software simulations, and analytical models) that are not submitted as a contract data deliverable shall be made available to NRL upon COR request. Any designs, technical data files and software generated in the course of this activity shall be delivered to the Government in computer readable form upon request, and shall not be considered proprietary. Upon request, numerical data shall be provided in a form that can be read by programs written in FORTRAN, C, C++, MATLAB, IDL, or other suitable software packages. The contractor shall deliver documentation on electronic media, and, when required, also in hard copy form.

The contractor shall provide for the creation of illustrations, drawings, and other graphic material required by the activities covered by this SOW, proposals, or technical presentations.

The contractor shall compose technical summaries and reports of surveys, investigations, or fact-finding efforts for tasks performed under this SOW.

The contractor shall describe documents or information reviewed or referenced;

organizations contacted; efforts undertaken; key progress and accomplishments, problems, or findings; and appropriate recommendations, conclusions, and action items.

The contractor shall provide personnel and material resources to support System Requirement Reviews (SRRs), Preliminary Design Reviews (PDRs), Critical Design Reviews (CDRs), Test Readiness Reviews (TRRs), and other technical reviews, and also support presentations at general scientific and engineering conferences. The contractor shall present technical results and other conclusions at these meetings. The contractor shall also participate in periodic and informal working group meetings and discussions held at the direction of NRL.

At the request of the COR, tasks may be divided into sub-tasks, to simplify tracking expenditures from distinct sources of funding, or for technical reasons.

3.2 Specific Tasks

Specific tasking shall depend on programmatic need and on the availability of funding.

Some tasks will have fallow periods. The following list of tasks is indicative of the types of tasks that should be expected.

3.2.1 Task 1— Passive Microwave Remote Sensing

This task pertains to the space-based, airborne, ship and ground-based passive remote sensing of microwave radiation.

NRL is currently involved in the operation and analysis of data from the space-based WindSat passive microwave radiometer and in the development of algorithms for and calibration of other space borne microwave radiometers such as the DoD Weather System Follow-on Microwave sensor (WSF-M) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2).

WindSat measures brightness temperatures at vertical and horizontal polarizations centered on 5 atmospheric window frequencies between 6 and 37 GHz, and is fully polarimetric at three of these frequencies. WindSat has demonstrated the feasibility of using passive microwave polarimetry to measure the ocean surface wind vector and other geophysical parameters, including sea surface temperature, columnar cloud liquid water, and columnar precipitable water.

Over oceans, WSF-M will measure ocean surface vector winds, sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, precipitable water vapor, cloud liquid water, and sea ice concentration. Over land, WSF-M will measure soil moisture, vegetation water content, and snow water equivalent.

NRL also develops smaller microwave and millimeter wave radiometers for ground, tower, and airborne deployment. These systems are used for scientific experimentation and as technical pathfinders.

The Contractor shall develop, maintain, and (where appropriate) run operations software algorithms to process data from the sensors, and scientific data processing algorithms.

The contractor shall develop, operate and maintain software for the calibration and validation of space-based and airborne instruments for the passive polarimetric microwave remote sensing of the ocean, land surface and atmosphere, including – but not restricted to

– the space-based Windsat and WSF-M, and the airborne and ground-based experiments.

The Contractor shall be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining strict configuration management for the evolving software and algorithms, for performing routine processing of the WindSat data in real time, and for making results available to NRL's government collaborators and to the contractors supporting other Navy, DoD, and other government organizations.

In particular, for WindSat and WSF-M this activity includes, as appropriate, development and maintenance of software to decode the raw telemetry; development of software to associate geolocation and time with radiometry, software to convert raw radiometric signals to antenna temperatures, and software to compute Faraday rotation.

This activity also includes maintenance and further development of software to correct the antenna temperatures to brightness temperatures, to collocate the brightness temperatures, and to reduce them to common resolutions; continued development, validation and documentation of the ocean wind vector retrievals; development, validation and documentation of land and ice retrieval algorithms; software integration, configuration management and in-house data processing activities; and modeling and scientific analysis of the data, including ocean wave, foam and bubble processes that affect the measured signals.

. The Contractor shall perform mechanical, RF, electronic, and software design and development of instruments and support equipment for ground-based, airborne, and space-based passive remote microwave sensors.

The Contractor shall perform engineering tasks to test, calibrate, and integrate passive microwave remote sensors and their associated support equipment for installation in host vehicle/platforms.

3.2.2 Task 2 – Synthetic Aperture Radar

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (INSAR) techniques are being used to measure radar backscatter from the ocean surface and from land scenes. The radars are mounted on both ground-based, space borne and airborne platforms.

The contractor shall develop, maintain, and apply algorithms to analyze SAR and INSAR data, and shall develop and evaluate contractor- and NRL-generated candidates for improved and new capabilities for SAR and INSAR.

3.2.3 Task 3 – Radar and Reflectometry

The Remote Sensing Division occasionally conducts field experiments involving ground and airborne radar systems. These experiments include monostatic and bistatic radars, as well as passive bistatic systems that utilize signals of opportunity as transmitters.

The contractor shall assist in the preparation, setup, and operation of the relevant sensors and ground-truth instruments.

The contractor shall analyze data from radar and reflectometry experiments.

It is expected that these tasks will be episodic and not exceed three months per year.

3.2.4 Task 4 – Spectral Imaging

The Remote Sensing Division designs, builds, and operates a suite of spectral imaging sensors spanning the wavelength range including UltraViolet, Visible, Near Infrared, Short-Wave Infrared and thermal. The instruments vary from full-frame broadband imagers to fully hyperspectral sensors with ~100 contiguous wavelength bands.

These instruments are used in aircraft to cover large areas, and on the ground or on the water, to collect ground-truth measurements and other ancillary data, and in the laboratory for stand-alone programs or calibration. The Division has operated a space-based VNIR hyperspectral system, and plans to do so again. The Division is also developing lightweight sensors to be used on UAV’s.

The contractor shall design, develop, run and maintain computer programs to operate these sensors and to analyze the resulting data.

The contractor shall assist in the preparation (calibration and characterization) and operation of individual experiments using these sensors, and assist in the distribution of data approved for release.

The contractor shall design, develop, validate, and run algorithms to process data from ground-, air- and space-based visible/infrared sensors such as but not limited to, NASA’s MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiomter) and VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer System).

3.2.5 Task 5 – Aerosol and Cloud Processes

NRL is developing and applying improved methods for the remote sensing of aerosols and clouds from surface, airborne, and space borne platforms.

The Contractor shall test, improve and extend computer models of marine aerosols and clouds, and of radiative transfer in hazy atmospheres.

The Contractor shall design, assemble and install special-purpose equipment needed for experiments.

The contractor shall perform laboratory and field measurements to obtain remote sensing and in situ aerosol and cloud data for comparing with the models.

The Contractor shall perform laboratory and field measurements of aerosol and cloud processes and of the effects of aerosols and clouds on natural and artificial optical radiation. The field measurements shall include surface measurements of sky radiance and direct solar irradiance.

The Contractor shall develop models and perform process studies to develop and evaluate algorithms for the space-based VIIRS instruments on JPSS and NPP.

3.2.6 Task 6 – Upper Atmospheric Processes and Remote Sensing

NRL is developing improved and new techniques of remotely sensing the upper troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the ionosphere, and the scientific study of those regions using data from new and existing instruments. Topics of current interest include the distribution of ozone, water vapor, NO2, and aerosols, volcanic plumes, and the lofting of forest fire smoke into the stratosphere and its subsequent transport, atmospheric radiative transfer, atmospheric photochemistry and fluid dynamics, atmospheric data assimilation, and the use of upper atmospheric data to aid weather forecasting. New instruments of current interest include the OMPS instruments on NPP and JPSS and new GLO (Gas filter correlation radiometer Limb Occultation) sensor and the HAMLS (High-Altitude Millimeter-wave Limb Sounder).

The contractor shall develop and apply software for evaluating proposed new techniques, shall develop and apply algorithms for processing and analyzing data, and for modeling and simulating instruments and atmospheric processes, and for calibrating and validating new instruments. Where appropriate, the contractor shall participate in measurement campaigns.

The Contractor shall perform optical, electronic, mechanical, and software design and development of instruments and support equipment for ground-based, airborne, and space-based optical and infrared remote sensing of the atmosphere.

The Contractor shall perform engineering tasks to test, calibrate and integrate visible and IR remote sensors and their associated support equipment for installation in host vehicle/platforms, including satellite platforms.

The Contractor shall perform calibration and analysis on data from airborne and space-based visible and infrared sensors designed to measure upper atmosphere constituents.

The Contractor shall perform calibration and analysis on data from ground-based microwave and millimeter wave spectrometers designed to measure upper atmosphere constituents.

3.2.7 Task 7 – Radio Astronomy

NRL is one of the leading organizations worldwide in extending radio astronomy to lower frequencies, where non-thermal emissions become more dominant than at higher frequencies. Radio astronomy at low frequencies will provide essential data on active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and their jets of relativistic electrons interacting with magnetic fields, and on how those jets influence their host galaxies and host clusters of galaxies.

Data at low frequencies will provide new information on the super-massive black hole (SMBH) at the center of our own Galaxy. It will provide data on the cosmological Dark Ages and the subsequent Epoch of Reionization, H-II regions in general, pulsars, sources of transient radio emission, plasma irregularities along various lines of sight in the Milky Way, solar and interplanetary radio bursts (and therefore space weather), planetary radio emissions, and the Earth’s ionosphere. Radio astronomy at low frequencies is as yet poorly developed because it is especially difficult. Ionospheric effects become huge, and place a floor on the usable frequencies. At low frequencies RFI becomes severe. NRL is developing methods of coping with both of these difficulties.

The contractor shall develop techniques and algorithms to advance the state of the art of ground-based, lunar-based and space-based interferometric radio astronomy at low frequencies, as well as at the frequencies commonly used in radio astronomy. This task includes design activities, hardware development, simulations, and analyses of potential scientific applications.

The contractor shall participate in building, installing and testing prototype versions of antennas, “tiles”, and related hardware at the site of the ground-based array (the Long Wavelength Array (LWA), near Socorro, NM). This is a part-time activity, estimated to last three months per year.

The contractor shall analyze data from the LWA and from existing interferometric arrays (Very Large Array (VLA), Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA)) on AGN, clusters of galaxies, and the other types of sources of radio emission that are listed in the previous paragraph. These analyses will frequently require complementary data at other wavelengths, which may require proposing observations at X-ray and other observatories, such as Chandra, and processing and analyzing the resulting data.

3.2.8 Task 8 – IR Astronomy

NRL is active in obtaining and analyzing ground-based, airborne and space-based Infrared (IR) data on astronomical sources. In particular, NRL played a significant role in the optical design of the Herschel space telescope, and is also developing innovative filters (low pass, high pass, and band pass) and beam-splitters for IR astronomy, using metamaterials and micro electrical machines (MEMs). In Galactic IR astronomy, NRL studies planet-forming disks and young stars. In extra-galactic IR astronomy NRL studies star-forming galaxies, interacting galaxies, and AGN and SMBH.

The contractor shall participate in obtaining and analyzing IR data on Galactic and extragalactic astronomical sources, including the types of sources named above, and shall correlate that data with data at other wavelengths.

The contractor shall participate in the design and testing of innovative optical components for IR astronomy.

3.2.9 Task 9 – Interferometric Optical Astronomy, and Astrometry

NRL is one of the leading organizations worldwide in developing interferometric astronomical imaging at optical wavelengths. Together with the Naval Observatory, NRL develops and operates the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI), near Flagstaff, AZ.

Interferometric imaging allows large improvements in angular resolution, but is challenging because sub-wavelength mechanical tolerances become more difficult to satisfy when the wavelength becomes small, and also because a sparsely populated unfilled-aperture array collects only a small fraction of the light falling upon the terrain occupied by the array, The contractor shall participate in the development of techniques and algorithms to advance the state of the art of interferometric astronomical imaging at optical wavelengths.

Participation includes design activities, simulations, and analyses of potential scientific applications.

The contractor shall assist in installing, testing and operating improved hardware at

NPOI. This is a part-time activity, estimated to last three months per year.

The contractor shall analyze data from the NPOI, and shall correlate it with complementary data at other wavelengths, such as radio, IR and X-ray wavelengths.

4.0 CONTRACT DELIVERABLES

The Contractor shall provide deliverables in accordance with Exhibit A, DD1423, Contract Data Requirements List. All documents shall be delivered in electronic form, but, when requested by NRL, documents to be distributed at program reviews shall also be provided in hardcopy form, in sufficient quantity for distribution to the attendees.