RFI- Argos.docx

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Protected Resources (OPR)

Request for Information: Argos Satellite Data Transmission Service Introduction This is issued solely for informational and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future. This does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. Further, NOAA is not at this time seeking quotes and will not accept unsolicited quotes. Interested parties are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this email. All costs associated with responding to this email will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this email does not preclude participation in any future RFQ, if any is issued at a future date. If a solicitation is released, it will be posted. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

Description The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in support of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Office of Protected Resources (OPR), Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Division is seeking to identify vendors with the capacity to deliver satellite data transmission services. These services must be compatible with wildlife platform transmitter terminals (PTT) and capable of providing data transmitted by PTT in near-real time and in a standardized format.

NOAA Fisheries will utilize this service for multiple critical missions to manage and protect fisheries, marine mammal and sea turtle populations. The team will install satellite transmitting devices to provide real-time monitoring and obtain data necessary to understand and implement effective conservation and recovery efforts.

Another project this service will support is the efforts to further understand habitat use preferences of fisheries, marine mammal and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico leading to efforts to better mitigate threats in those areas. The PTT’s utilized by NOAA Fisheries are specifically designed for data transmission via the Argos system. The Argos service provided by the Woods Hole Group is essential to NOAA Fisheries' initiatives in tracking marine life movements and monitoring water temperatures.

Marine life generally exhibits secretive behaviors and occupies extensive ranges, making direct tracking challenging. To gain insights into their habitat requirements, movement rates, home ranges, and other ecological parameters, it is necessary to employ remote tracking techniques. This service will specifically offer critical satellite data transmission and high-resolution location accuracy to researchers, enhancing monitoring efforts regarding movement patterns, site fidelity, seasonal migrations, corridor utilization, habitat preferences, and responses to changes in water temperature and other environmental factors.

Responses Interested parties are requested to respond to this email.

Responses are due no later than January 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM EST. Responses shall submitted via e-mail only to Alexyss.Lewis@noaa.gov. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

Responses shall include:

a) Name and address of the company

b) Name, title, and telephone number of the primary point of contact

c) Authorized Resellers (Yes/No); Please provide authorized reseller letter

d) Unique Entity ID (UEI) Number, primary NAICS code and business size

e) Number of employees of the company

f) Product information or general description (product brochure)

g) Product specifications

h) Any user manuals

i) Any references of other government entities that have used the product

Questions Questions regarding this announcement shall be submitted in writing by e-mail to Alexyss.Lewis@noaa.gov. Verbal questions will NOT be accepted.

Period of Performance Base Year: August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026 Option Year 1: August 1, 2026 to July 31, 2027 Option Year 2: August 1, 2027 to July 31, 2028 Option Year 3: August 1, 2028 to July 31, 2029 Option Year 4: August 1, 2029 to July 31, 2030

Technical Requirements

1. Required services for each Task Order shall be identified by name and quantity.

1. Daily location access and transmission data shall be obtained through the secure online portal.

1. Each Task Order/Program Office requirement may be assigned a program number.

PLATFORMS

ArgosService This service is provided by the Argos Processing Centers. It includes platform location calculation, sensor data processing and access to data collected by all the operational satellites.

· Argos locations Argos positioning is based on the Doppler Shift of the carrier frequency of the messages collected during a satellite pass (https://www.argos-system.org/manual/). GPS positions, if transmitted in the Argos messages, could be processed by CLS and distributed with the same format as Argos locations.

· Data Access The data collected by Argos from the last 365 days are available for on-line consultation on ArgosWeb at www.argos-system.org.

Satellite Data Collection and Location for Transmitting Platforms Formula: Price per month, per platform = A + n x B (A: monthly fee per active platform, n: number of day units, B: daily fee)

Monthly fee per active platform (A): Monthly fee charged when a platform transmits at least once during a given calendar month.

Daily fee for any transmitting day (B): All platforms (all applications) price per day of transmission Number of day units (n) – Capping at 12 days applied to all platforms allowing unlimited monthly usage

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

ArgosDirect ArgosDirect automatically delivers your processed data. Available Options:

· By email and/or FTP

· SMS delivery

· Several formats available: CSV, XLS, XML, etc.

· Choose the delivery frequency: with every new data, every hour, once a day, etc.

· Choose between the pay-as-you-go option and the unlimited data plan (fixed price per active platform, max. 3 recipients)

ArgosArchive (CD-Rom or Email)

· All locations and collected data are stored at the Argos Centers. Upon request, archived data can be sent on CD-Rom or via e-mail.

· Data are available online free of charge for a period of 12 months.

Regular Monthly Data Bank

· Data volume < 100 Kbytes

· Data volume between 100 Kbytes – 1 Mbyte

· Data volume > 1 Mbyte

· Archived Data is available upon request by contacting User Services.

ArgosWeb Free Secured Web Access Access data via website with ArgosWeb. View platform trajectories on land and marine maps. Responsive design with mapping tool and improved data access. One year of data available online – Free of Charge.

· View Argos locations on a map

· Export to Google Earth

· View Argos data messages

· Download data

· Manage your own settings

· Add users on-copy

· Create guest accounts

ARGOSMONITOR

ArgosMonitor is a range of services developed to address monitoring needs related to platform performance, position and/or sensor monitoring. Most parameters of interes can be monitored and you receive automatic alert notice, by email or SMS, as soon as the change you are looking for is detected.

ArgosMonitor Basic Service surcharge per platform/per day.

Additional service associated with ArgosService used to monitor specific parameters include:

· Platform transmission (TRANSMISSION) Transmission ArgosMonitor: Is the transmitter still working? Transmission ArgosMonitor sends you an alert when no message has been received from your platform for a pre-defined time period. An alert message will also be sent if no location has been calculated

· Position versus a customized geographical zone (GEO) Geo ArgosMonitor: Has the animal I’m tracking entered a wintering zone? Returned to its nest? Crossed a border? Has my platform entered/left a place of interest? GEO ArgosMonitor sends you an alarm message when a platform enters or leaves a customized zone

· Sensor data value such as battery level, temperature, etc. (SENSOR) Sensor ArgosMonitor can alert users when an unusual value for a particular sensor is reported.

· Is the animal still alive (are heart rate, temperature measurements normal)? How is my platform performing (battery level, light sensors etc.)? Has something unusual occurred: sudden atmospheric pressure drop? Has the temperature risen unexpectedly? Has the water level risen or dropped?

Moored Buoy Monitoring (MBM) Designed for moored buoys, this service will alert you if a moored buoy leaves its mooring zone. It also provides you with locations so you can quickly recover your moored buoy.

Service applied to surface buoy monitoring. MBM service nominal mode (1 position delivered per day) & MBM service in Alarm mode (all positions delivered).

· Monthly charge per active platform

· Price per day of transmission (capped at 12 days per month)

Silent PTT Monitoring This service is designed for underwater moorings (i.e. platforms that only use Argos in case of an emergency). It sends an alert (and if possible, a location) if at least two messages have been received via the Argos system Silent PTT Monitoring subscription, per month Silent PTT Transmissions

· Monthly charge per active platform

· Price per day of transmission (capped at 12 days per month)

Sending Alerts Sending alerts via email or SMS for all ArgosMonitor services: refer to ArgosDirect rates.

ARGOS POST-PROCESSING SERVICES

This range of services aims at positioning enhancements through various means such as data filtering, multi- satellite processing, and light-based data combined with oceanographic data.

Track & Loc This service applies to both pop up and archival platforms. Its main purpose is to improve the standard light-level-based Geo location usually provided by platform manufacturers. This is achieved by estimating the positions using not only light level measurements but also satellite derived sea surface temperatures and bottom topography. As an output of this service the user receives:

· Improved positions with estimated errors

· Detailed quality checks of the results, helping identify potential problems of the acquired data

· All additional data (temperature-depth profiles, etc.) Acquired by the platform in an easily readable format.

Oceanographic data along the estimated track (satellite derived surface temperature and color, surface currents) can also be provided.

On-demand Multipass Location Multipass location can be calculated when very few messages are received from the platform (e.g. maximum one message per satellite pass). Such a location is manually calculated by a CLS expert using all the messages received during several satellite passes and considering the platform is basically not moving.

Argos Doppler Location Reprocessing CLS has developed a post processing service based on Kalman filtering. This method, compared to the least square method, is still based on the shift in Doppler frequency but introduces two additional algorithms: a mobile's dynamic model and a Kalman filter approach for the calculation of the positions. The benefits include more available positions with an improved precision, associated to error ellipses, and the exclusion of unrealistic positions. The reprocessing also benefits from an additional enhancement with the post filtering of trajectories using a second Kalman filtering.

Enrich your tracks with contextual data

· Including Argos Doppler Location Reprocessing, Meteorological and Ocean data

· Price per platform and per day of transmission