AMENDMENT 0001 RaaS.pdf

RADAR-AS-A-SERVICE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

FOR THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

GENERAL NOTICE

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service (NWS) is conducting market research on the technological capabilities of vendors to support the planning for a future generation network of weather radars to replace the aging Weather Surveillance Radar (WSR-88D) operated by the interagency Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) program. The NEXRAD WSR-88D is one of the most impactful observation systems in the nation and directly supports detecting and warning for severe weather including tornadoes, hurricanes, winter weather, and floods. Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 10 requires the Government to conduct market research before developing new requirements documents for an acquisition. Results of market research will be used to determine whether qualified sources exist.

The information obtained from industry’s responses to this notice may be used in the development of an acquisition strategy and future Request for Proposal (RFP).

The Government does not intend to award a contract based on this market research or otherwise pay for information received. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for information, planning purposes, and market research; it does not constitute an RFP or a promise to issue an RFP. This market research does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. NOAA will not pay for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement, or any follow-up information requests. Not responding to this announcement does not preclude participation in any future RFP. All submissions become the property of the Government and will not be returned. If a solicitation is released, it will be posted on the System for Award Management (SAM) https://sam.gov.

The North American Industry Classification System code for this RFI is 541715 – Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology).

NWS envisions implementing and maintaining a backbone of weather radars that meet or exceed the capabilities and coverage provided by the current NEXRAD network. The NWS expects that the future backbone will consist mainly of S-Band radars. Radar Next is exploring a

Radar-as-a-Service (RaaS) model in which the Program will purchase commercial data (Contractor Owned/Contractor Operated) to incorporate into NWS operations. Overall, NWS's goals are a future generation network that will:

● Ensure continuity of radar data: Prevent disruption in the continuity of the Nation’s weather radars due to aging infrastructure, which would severely impact the ability to predict and respond to weather-related emergencies.

RaaS_RADARNEXT

AMENDMENT 0001

RFI RaaS_RADARNEXT AMENDMENT 0001

The due date for submissions has been extended to June 26, 2025. The update has been noted in red.

https://sam.gov

● Address current gaps in radar coverage: Expand radar coverage particularly at low levels and meet Department of Commerce’s goals to provide the Nation with timely and accurate environmental forecasts and warnings.

● Improve radar performance and capabilities: Create a network of radars that are more flexible and scalable to adapt to changing needs and technological advancements, providing a mix of observations for higher impact missions and supporting new business models and technology that, collectively, will result in improvements to radar capabilities and increased data accuracy.

This RFI aims to inform the feasibility of acquisition strategies that will meet the intent of Executive Order 14271 - Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts with respect to acquiring S-Band weather RaaS for further evaluation to meet the envisioned Radar Next requirements of a future weather radar network.

REQUESTED INFORMATION

1. Does your organization have the current ability to provide an S-Band weather RaaS (Contractor Owned/Contractor Operated) business model to meet or exceed the capabilities and coverage provided by the current NEXRAD network ? Service provided could include S-band Phased Array Radars (PAR) and/or traditional parabolic radars. Under a radar-as-a-service model, the customer pays for weather data only on a monthly/annual subscription basis and the provider bears all costs of the radar network, including but not limited to design, development, production, installation, testing, data integration/delivery to NWS network, and operations and maintenance costs.

If Yes, indicate the type(s) of weather radar (PAR, traditional parabolic dish, or other types) currently offered at S-band or under consideration for a future expansion/business model change by your organization. Provide a services catalog if available. Include any assumptions such as number of sites necessary to meet/exceed NEXRAD’s current coverage. Provide the current or projected average monthly subscription cost per site and deployment timeline.

2. If you answered No to Question #1, would your organization consider investing and building the future capability to provide S-band weather RaaS to meet or exceed the capabilities and coverage provided by the current NEXRAD network? Under a RaaS model, the customer pays for weather data only on a monthly/annual subscription basis and the provider bears all costs of the radar network, including but not limited to design, development, production, installation, testing, and operations and maintenance costs.

If Yes, provide the high-level approach and associated timeline your organization would take to fund the internal investment required to design, produce, and deploy a radar system of similar size, scale, and complexity of the NEXRAD network and associated data quality/format. Please describe the type of radar (PAR, traditional parabolic dish, or other types) that your organization would offer.

If No, what are your barriers to entry (e.g. business, technical, logistics, etc.), challenges, and/or risks to the S-band weather RaaS market or applying this model to the NWS’s next generation weather radar system? Please provide details regarding each of the barriers you identified.

3. If you answered No to both Questions #1 and #2, do you have the current capability or would you consider providing a future weather RaaS model to address gaps in the future Radar Next network? If so, provide the radar type (PAR, traditional parabolic dish, mobile, portable, or other) and frequency band(s) (X-, C-, and/or S-band), the current or projected average monthly or annual subscription cost per radar, and the current/projected number and potential locations for your current/future weather radar-as-a-service gap filling offerings.

RESPONSE FORMAT

Your company is requested to submit its response electronically by providing:

1. Company name, mailing address, overnight delivery address (if different from mailing address), cage code, SAM unique entity identification, point of contact, email address, and telephone number.

2. Business size and unique qualifiers (e.g. large, small, joint venture, 8(a), minority-owned, woman-owned, economically disadvantaged woman-owned, HUBZone, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, Ability One).

3. Participation in a General Services Administration schedule and/or a government-wide acquisition contract. If so, provide the task order number(s), special item number(s) awarded, and/or schedule.

Responses to any or all information requested in this RFI is acceptable. Responses must be submitted in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. RFI responses are limited to 15 pages on standard US letter size 8-1/2 by 11-inch paper using either Times New Roman or Arial font, 12 point.

Existing commercial documentation and product literature can also be submitted separately and is not subject to a page limitation. Cover pages and contact information do not count against the page limit. Any supporting technical drawings/data should be as an appendix and does not count against the page limit. However, incorporated figures, charts, and images do count against the page limit.

This is a wide-ranging RFI. Be sure to include pertinent information, such as any current federal agencies using the technology, results of independent third-party testing, and/or anything else your company believes may support the Government’s understanding of this technology.

This RFI is the continuation of expected industry engagement opportunities for the Government to learn more about current and future weather radars, weather surveillance-related technology, and understand changing market dynamics as well as innovations that may impact future procurement strategies. Please continue to monitor https://sam.gov as opportunities are announced.

Industry is encouraged to review the previous RFI: Weather Radar Technologies and Concepts of Operations for the National Weather Service (Notice ID: NOAANWSNEXT (inactive) linked below.

https://sam.gov/opp/cc3436a8011e4f7da30acac733184a0d/view

RESPONSE SUBMISSION, DEADLINE, AND POINTS OF CONTACT

Responses shall be submitted via email to the Contracting Officer Kevin Buum, Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) Tammy Buie, and Contract Specialist (CS) Holly Ferguson at Kevin.J.Buum@noaa.gov, Tammy.K.Buie@noaa.gov, and Holly.Ferguson@noaa.gov no later than June 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM EST.

The subject line of the submission email shall be formatted as follows:

“[Company Name] RFI Submission for RADAR-AS-A-SERVICE”

Contact with Government personnel, other than points of contacts listed herein, by potential offerors or their employees regarding this RFI is strictly prohibited. Please do not submit any classified information.

APPENDICES & ATTACHMENTS

The following documents are provided for reference only and do not represent requirements for the future NWS Doppler weather radar surveillance systems.

Appendix A: Definitions of Technology Readiness Levels Appendix B: Baseline Radar Architecture Appendix C: Operations and Maintenance Baseline Appendix D: Data Products

Attachment A: WSR-88D System Specification Attachment B: WSR-88D Radar Site List Attachment C: NEXRAD Coverage Attachment D: NOAA/National Weather Service Radar Functional Requirements https://sam.gov https://sam.gov/opp/cc3436a8011e4f7da30acac733184a0d/view mailto:Kevin.J.Buum@noaa.gov mailto:Tammy.K.Buie@noaa.gov mailto:Holly.Ferguson@noaa.gov

APPENDIX A – DEFINITIONS OF TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS (TRL)

TRL 1 - Basic principles observed and reported: Transition from scientific research to applied research. Essential characteristics and behaviors of systems and architectures.

Descriptive tools are mathematical formulations or algorithms.

TRL 2 - Technology concept and/or application formulated: Applied research. Theory and scientific principles are focused on specific application areas to define the concept.

Characteristics of the application are described. Analytical tools are developed for simulation or analysis of the application.

TRL 3 - Analytical and experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof-of-concept: Proof of concept validation. Active Research and Development is initiated with analytical and laboratory studies. Demonstration of technical feasibility using breadboard or brass board implementations that are exercised with representative data.

TRL 4 - Component/subsystem validation in laboratory environment: Standalone prototyping implementation and test. Integration of technological elements. Experiments with full-scale problems or data sets.

TRL 5 - System/subsystem/component validation in relevant environment: Thorough testing of prototyping in representative environment. Basic technology elements integrated with reasonably realistic supporting elements. Prototyping implementations conform to target environment and interfaces.

TRL 6 - System/subsystem model or prototyping demonstration in a relevant end-to-end environment: Prototyping implementations on full-scale realistic problems. Partially integrated with existing systems. Limited documentation available. Engineering feasibility fully demonstrated in actual system application.

TRL 7 - System prototyping demonstration in an operational environment: System prototyping demonstration in operational environment. The system is at or near scale of the operational system, with most functions available for demonstration and test. Well integrated with collateral and ancillary systems. Limited documentation available.

TRL 8 - Actual system completed and "network qualified" through test and demonstration in an operational environment: End of system development. Fully integrated with operational hardware and software systems. Most user documentation, training documentation, and maintenance documentation completed. All functionality tested in simulated and operational scenarios. Verification and Validation completed. Full operational demonstration.

TRL 9 - Actual system "network proven" through successful operations: Fully integrated with operational hardware/software systems. Actual system has been thoroughly demonstrated and tested in its operational environment. All documentation completed. Successful operational experience. Sustaining engineering support in place. System is ready for operations or has been operationally deployed in the environment.

APPENDIX B – BASELINE RADAR ARCHITECTURE

For the purposes of this announcement, NOAA is providing a baseline radar architecture for the existing NEXRAD system. This reference network is for planning purposes within this RFI. It serves as the baseline case against which variations can be assessed, but does not reflect future requirements that could affect radar coverage. The architecture consists of:

1. 146 S-Band Dual Polarization Doppler radars spaced across CONUS to cover major population centers, major airports and transportation infrastructure, major military installations, and other areas of critical infrastructure. All of these are rotating parabolic dishes.

2. 7 S-Band Dual Polarization Doppler radars spaced across Alaska to cover major population centers, major airports and transportation infrastructure, major military installations, and other areas of critical infrastructure. All of these are rotating parabolic dishes.

3. 4 S-Band Dual Polarization Doppler radars spaced across Hawaii to cover major population centers, major airports and transportation infrastructure, major military installations, and other areas of critical infrastructure. All of these are rotating parabolic dishes.

4. 1 S-Band Dual Polarization Doppler radar located in both Puerto Rico and Guam to cover major population centers, major airports and transportation infrastructure, major military installations, and other areas of critical infrastructure. These are both rotating parabolic dishes.

Figure 1: NEXRAD volume coverage below 10,000 feet for CONUS and outside the contiguous United States.

The baseline radar network will generally represent the achieved operational capabilities of the WSR-88D with dual polarization. A description of these capabilities including the data products and the measurement quality of these products is provided as Attachment D: NOAA/National Weather Service Radar Functional Requirements.

APPENDIX C – OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE BASELINE

For the purposes of this announcement, the following overview of NEXRAD operations and maintenance (O&M) activities is provided as a baseline. It serves as the baseline case against which concepts for improvement can be assessed, but does not reflect future O&M requirements.

NEXRAD currently uses radars that were designed and developed in the early 1990s and is currently under a Service Life Extension Program since 2015 to extend the life of the radars.

• Operations. The NWS Radar Operations Center located in Norman, Oklahoma provides 24x7 Help Desk support for all NEXRAD technical and/or operational issues. A mobile team is on-call to support outage restoration and/or troubleshoot issues in the field.

• Maintenance. Routine maintenance of NEXRAD is performed by electronic technicians assigned to Weather Forecast Offices nationwide. Technicians are responsible for executing system modifications, replacing components, and diagnosing technical issues.

• Repair. Failed parts are sent for repair to the National Reconditioning Center (NRC) in Kansas City, Missouri. If unable to fix the part themselves, the NRC ships it to the original equipment manufacturer.

APPENDIX D – DATA PRODUCTS

System bias

The radar hardware calibration must determine the measurement uncertainties related to the system hardware components as accurately as possible for all radar variables. Accurate system bias calculation ensures that observations accurately represent the returned signals for those variables.

WSR-88D capability, in the absence of clutter filtering:

• Reflectivity: 1 dBZ for target with true spectrum width of 4 m/s and SNR > 10 dB

• Velocity: 0.0 m/s for target with true spectrum width of 4 m/s and SNR > 8 dB

• Spectrum Width: 0.2 m/s for target with true spectrum width of 4 m/s and SNR > 10 dB

• Differential Reflectivity: 0.1 dB for target with true differential reflectivity (ZDR) of less than ±1 dB, true spectrum width of 2 m/s, Correlation Coefficient ≥ 0.99, dwell time of 50 ms and SNR ≥ 20 dB (for ZDR with a magnitude greater than 1 dB, bias should be less than 10% of the ZDR magnitude)

• Correlation Coefficient: 0.006 for target with true spectrum width of 2 m/s, Correlation Coefficient ≥ 0.99, dwell time of 50 ms and SNR ≥ 20 dB

• Differential Phase: 1 deg for target with true spectrum width of 2 m/s, Correlation Coefficient of ≥ 0.99, dwell time of 50 ms and SNR ≥ 20 dB

Standard deviation of estimates of radar variables

The radar variable values generated by signal processing of target return signals must be consistent from observation to observation for any given type of spatially homogeneous weather target to ensure reliability and dependability for subjective and objective applications of the data.

Accurate estimations of system bias and low standard deviations of estimates of radar variables are critical components of the accuracy and representativeness of the radar variable estimates.

Performance of WSR-88D:

• Reflectivity: ≤ 1 dB for target with true spectrum width of 4 m/s and SNR ≥ 10 dB

• Velocity: ≤ 1 m/s for target with true spectrum width of 4 m/s and SNR > 8 dB

• Spectrum Width: ≤ 0.5 m/s for target with true spectrum width of 2 m/s and < 0.95 m/s for true spectrum width of 4 m/s and SNR > 10 dB

• Differential Reflectivity: < 0.4 dB for target with true spectrum width of 2 m/s, Correlation Coefficient ≥ 0.99, dwell time of 50 ms and SNR ≥ 20 dB

• Correlation Coefficient: < 0.006 for target with true spectrum width of 2 m/s, correlation coefficient ≥ 0.99, dwell time of 50 ms and SNR ≥ 20 dB

• Differential Phase: < 2.5 deg for target with true spectrum width of 2 m/s, correlation coefficient of ≥ 0.99, dwell time of 50 ms and SNR ≥ 20 dB

Quantization of radar variables

Radar variables must be provided to data processing systems with sufficient quantization to support data accuracy determinations and to provide the capability to reveal the small scale, often critical, variations of values within many weather targets (e.g., convective storms). Radar variable quantization is sometimes used interchangeably with precision of the variable estimates (e.g., the WSR-88D System Specification), even though such usage is not technically correct.

Performance of WSR-88D:

• Reflectivity: 0.5 dB

• Velocity: 0.5 m/s

• Spectrum Width: 0.5 m/s

• Differential Reflectivity: 0.0625 dB

• Correlation Coefficient: 0.00333

• Differential Phase: 0.35 deg