Q&A - 3-19-2021.pdf

Submitted questions and answers for the Notice of Funding Opportunity

Aircraft Tracking Over National Parks - P21AS00320

3/18/2021

Question Answer 1 Is the NPS specifically looking for support on manned aviation tourism or is there a need for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) traffic management to better facilitate research, tourism, and DOI/NPS operations? Our solution may align with manned aviation and the ADS-B requirement but is predominantly focused on managing UAS operations.

The primary objective of this study is to support the NPS in manned aviation tourism. Ancillary benefits such as support for better understanding all airspace traffic above parks, including commercial traffic, general aviation, and UAS would be welcomed.

2 In the Call for Proposals document, for expected outcomes it mentions, "a better understanding of how aircraft noise may spread across the park". Would you mind providing some clarity as to what NPS is specifically expecting for that?

One of the primary concerns of resource and visitor experience protection is the noise these air tours produce. Understanding the travel patterns are key to understanding the noise; however, we encourage proposals to, in whatever capacity they can, go beyond just aircraft tracking patterns to inferences about noise.

3 Can you share any R scripts you are using for ADS-B data cleaning?

An example R script that we use for cleaning data can be found here -https://github.com/8BitCowboy/ADSB-analysis

4 How will data from the data logger be retrieved? Will this be done by NPS or by the award recipient?

The NPS is open to supporting retrieval of the data from loggers. However, more efficient methods of data retrieval from logging systems are welcomed.

5 Will NPS provide the most recent shapefiles for park sites, boundaries, and wilderness areas to the award recipient?

Yes.

6 Are park units preselected or is it up to the applicant to find partner parks?

The parks will be preselected by the NPS. We would be open to working with specific park units if the partner/park could present a demonstrative need. Since one of the primary purposes of this project is to better understand air tours, most of the work will focus on parks with air tours.

Please refer to our NSNSD Air Tours webpage, which includes reporting https://github.com/8BitCowboy/ADSB-analysis https://github.com/8BitCowboy/ADSB-analysis https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/airtours.htm https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/airtours.htm data. In additions to these parks, studies will also likely take place in Alaska.

7 How many park units would be appropriate to partner with?

We hope to partner with 8-12 parks, or more, per year. Some of these parks units will require multiple logger devices.

8 What is the period of performance for this project?

It is anticipated that the period of performance would be 3 years. A distribution of $50k would distributed each year.