NESDIS-SAE Fire Weather RFI.pdf

Posting Type Request for Information

Posting Date January 19, 2024

Response Date February 16, 2024, 2 P.M. Eastern Time

Title NOAA Fire Weather Request for Information

Contracting Officer Suzanna Espinoza

This is a Request for Information (RFI). NOAA wishes to conduct a Request for Information that will serve as market research around capabilities that will aid in fire weather forecasting, detection and monitoring of wildland fires, coupled fire-weather forecasting, and post-fire vegetation recovery. NOAA is soliciting information on existing or planned commercial data and information or forecasting systems for pre-, active, and post-wildland fire applications that will be available in the FY2024 through FY2030 timeframe. This RFI is for informational purposes only;

it is not a request for proposals or a solicitation for a contract or grant award and it does not obligate the Government in any way. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with responding to this request.

Background NOAA’s engagement with wildfire is comprehensive. Per its weather and climate services mandate, NOAA provides critical outlooks, forecasts and watch and warning products. NOAA satellites are routinely used to spot new ignitions with sophisticated instruments and track the growth of fires and movement of smoke across the country.

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) provides forecast advice and interpretative services on demand to help core partners, such as emergency personnel and public safety officials, make decisions when high-impact weather events like wildfires threaten lives and property.

Specially trained Incident Meteorologists, or IMETS, are ready for deployment to wildfire command centers to generate real-time fire weather forecasts to support tactical firefighting decisions. NWS forecasts rely on observations, models, and local knowledge to assess and forecast fire weather conditions. After the fires are out, NWS forecasters closely monitor burn scars using high-resolution weather models, Doppler radar, and their knowledge of local terrain to identify when even modest rain storms could produce a flooding threat.

Purpose The purpose of this RFI is to solicit additional information from industry to inform U.S.

Government agency plans for potential use of commercial capabilities that support NOAA’s fire https://www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfire weather mission. NOAA seeks information on existing and planned commercial environmental data and related capabilities that will be available in the FY2024 through FY2030 timeframe and that may help NOAA meet its diverse fire mission objectives.

Responses to this RFI will be used to inform a potential commercial fire weather data pilot project. NOAA may use the results of the RFI to inform multiple future Requests for Proposals for acquisition of commercial data and related capabilities.

Information Requested NOAA is interested in commercially provided fire weather data and related capabilities to augment the current observational datasets and tools used for modeling, monitoring, and predicting fire weather. Suppliers are invited to submit Capability Statements describing such fire weather offerings. Examples of capabilities that are of interest to NOAA include, but are not limited to:

● Coupled fire-atmosphere prediction

● Smoke detection

● Smoke forecasting

● Detection of wildfires

● Fuel type and state

● Characterization of fire intensity and direction and rate of spread

● Fire weather observations, such as relative humidity, temperature, and wind speed and direction

● Fire weather prediction, including seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasting

● Burn scar monitoring

These capabilities are representative of some of the types of tools currently used for fire weather services and are not in priority order. Commercial sources of such capabilities, or any other capability, including citizen science components, that may be useful in advancing NOAA’s fire weather mission, would be of interest to NOAA.

In general, for fire weather data and information to be of operational value they must be available in near-real-time. Data latency (time from observation to delivery to NOAA) of 1 to 30 minutes may be required, depending on the capability. For the purposes of this RFI, non-real-time data may be of interest provided there is a path to achieve operational quality in the future.

Submission Instructions Capability Statements may address one or more of the categories listed above and should https://sciencecouncil.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NOAA-Citizen-Science-Action-Plan_final.pdf include the following information.

1. Business information including company name, address, Unique Entity ID (UEI) number, and CAGE Code; point of contact with email and phone number; size of company to include number of employees and revenue for the last three years; office locations; any current SBA small business designations.

2. A description of the offering for each category from the above list, or other if applicable.

This should include a description of any current or planned satellite instruments and assets, including launch dates, operational status, and ground operations. The ability to support a Pilot study should be described and the earliest possible date to provide data to NOAA should be clearly indicated. Approaches to meet complex data requirements, such as precise and accurate calibration, latency, continuity between system generations, quality assurance, independent verification and validation should be provided.

3. A description of the corporate history, resources, affiliations, other markets being served, and any other information to demonstrate the viability of providing sustained operations and stable data services.

4. Projected costs and associated business models, including the degree of government commitment required and the extent of non-government markets for the services.

5. Business risks to the proposed approach and the means for mitigating those risks.

6. Cost models for proposed data and/or services, and any associated licensing terms for redistribution by NOAA to partner agencies (to include US and foreign) and academia for the purpose of forecasting and research. Part of NOAA's mission is to supply environmental data products to a diverse set of end users and partner organizations and as such generally seeks to acquire data without sharing restrictions, however respondents may include other licensing terms as necessary.

7. Proposed provisions for providing service assurance with data supply contracts against technical (e.g., launch, spacecraft, or payload) failures and business risks.

8. Approaches to meeting complex data requirements, such as precise and accurate calibration, latency, continuity between system generations, quality assurance, independent verification and validation, and to structuring data/metadata to facilitate fusion with other sources.

Capability Statements must be received via email by the Contracting Officer at the address provided below no later than 2:00 pm Eastern Time on February 16, 2024. The

Government is not obligated to review responses received after the deadline.

Responses shall be limited to 15 pages, including any supporting appendices, title page(s), tables, graphics, pictures, indices, and figures. A page is defined as an 8.5 by 11-inch area with information contained within an image area of 7 by 9 inches. Text shall be no smaller than 12-point proportional font, with tables and figures no smaller than 10-point proportional font. Information shall be submitted in Microsoft Word .docx or Adobe Acrobat .pdf format.

Comments and Questions Comments and questions regarding this RFI shall be submitted by email to the Contracting Officer by the date specified above. Respondents are advised that questions and Government responses may be posted publicly on SAM.gov, although the identity of the requesting organization will be withheld.

Use of Information Received This RFI does not guarantee that the Government will issue a request for proposal (RFP) or award a contract for supplies or services. No specific RFP is planned to follow this RFI;

however, the responses could impact the Government’s decision to release multiple RFPs in the future.

Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable government regulations. Any material received will be considered to be public domain unless clearly marked (on each page) as proprietary. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for proprietary information not properly identified.

Respondents are hereby notified that as part of this evaluation, NOAA intends to share the information obtained from this market research with members of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS), which comprises representatives from Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, National Transportation Safety Board, and the Executive Office of the President. The ICAMS intends to use this information to foster interagency coordination on approaches to purchasing commercial weather data for operational use within the Federal Weather Enterprise. Respondents are also notified that in the process of evaluation, agencies may use Federally Funded Research and Development Centers and support contractors.

Not responding to this RFI will not preclude an entity from submitting a proposal to any subsequent NOAA solicitations.

Point of Contact Suzanna Espinoza

Contracting Officer E-mail: suzanna.espinoza@noaa.gov mailto:suzanna.espinoza@noaa.gov