SOW - N00173-20-R-RJ05.pdf

Naval Research Laboratory 4555 Overlook Avenue SW

Washington DC, 20375-5329 Code 0000

Research, Development, and Engineering Support for Geospace Remote Sensing and Modeling

Statement of Work (SOW)

31 August 2020

ID: N00173-20-R-RJ05

STATEMENT OF WORK

(Research, Development, and Engineering Support for Geospace Remote Sensing and Modeling)

Table of Contents Section 1 Background

Section 2 Scope

Section 3 Requirements

Section 4 Key Personnel

Section 5 Deliverables

Section 1 Background

The Naval Research Laboratory’s Space Science Division (NRL-SSD) conducts research in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics, solar-terrestrial physics, and atmospheric science of both the earth and other planets. Satellites, rockets, and ground-based facilities are used to observe the composition and structure of the neutral atmosphere and ionosphere over the altitude region from 0-500 km. Computer models of varying complexity are used to understand key radiative, photochemical, and dynamical processes and predict sources of geophysical variability in the altitude region from 0-500 km. The results of this research promote improved understanding of natural solar and geophysical variability throughout this extended operational environment that are of importance for a wide range of Navy and DoD applications involving, e.g., radio communications, the operation of ships and aircraft, and protection of assets in the near space environment.

In order to carry out such investigations pertaining to this solicitation, research and development (R&D) support is needed for existing and planned future satellite-based remote sensing systems, for investigating new remote sensing methods, for first-principles modeling of atmospheric processes, and for emerging whole-atmosphere data assimilation and modeling systems. Detailed descriptions of specific areas requiring R&D support follow under the Technical Requirements listed in Section 3.

Section 2 Scope

This contract will provide the necessary R&D expertise to support ongoing experimental and theoretical research projects at NRL-SSD using both on-site and off-site personnel. Experimental support requires expertise in project management that includes requirements management, systems analysis, design, testing, and user support. Experimental support also requires expertise in the calibration, upgrades, repairs, refurbishment, and flat fielding of optical systems. Theoretical support requires expertise in numerical modeling of terrestrial and planetary atmospheric processes, development and application of both active and passive remote sensing techniques encompassing the entire electromagnetic spectrum, advanced data assimilation techniques, analysis of both solar and terrestrial remote sensing data sets, and application of advanced computational methods in a high-performance computing environment.

Section 3 Requirements

3.1 The contractor shall provide hardware engineering, software engineering, scientific computation and analysis, and project coordination in support of both current and planned future research and operational satellite-based instruments for remote sensing of the composition and structure of both the neutral atmosphere and the thermosphere/ionosphere system.

NRL-SSD has an ongoing role in calibration, validation, and end user support (e.g., scientific interpretation and troubleshooting) for current and future planned operational satellites such as the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI) far ultraviolet sensor on the series of Defense

Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) orbital platforms, and the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR) on the next generation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).

Prior to launch, instruments must be recalibrated regularly to maintain status as a launch-ready sensor. Specific activities in support of the NRL-SSD’s geospace satellite remote sensing program shall include: (1) perform instrument calibration both on the ground and on-orbit; (2) serve as a point of contact with instrument engineers responsible for both calibration chamber maintenance and instrument component upgrades; (3) perform the setup of the calibration equipment and collect the data from the SSULI instruments; (4) perform analysis of the data (ground calibration, on-orbit calibration and performance), and report results; (5) analyze and optimize the on-orbit operation characteristics to maximize use of on-orbit data and preserve sensor life.

The validation portions of the geospace satellite remote sensing program will address a variety of data products called environmental data records (EDRs). There are EDRs that will be derived from dayglow, nightglow, and auroral data. Specific activities in support of instrument validation include: (1) use of state-of-the-art airglow and auroral models supporting NRL-SSD research and operational activities directed at data quality assessment and remote sensing algorithm assessment; (2) assist NRL-SSD personnel with investigations using remote sensing data in coincidence with ground-truth data from instruments/facilities such as ionosondes and incoherent scatter radars as part of the NRL-SSD Ground Data Analysis Software (GDAS) system;

(3) validation of auroral EDRs against coincident particle data from the Special Sensor J5 for detection of low-energy auroral electrons and ions onboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) platforms or similar satellites.

3.2 The contractor shall provide scientific and computational expertise for theoretical investigations involving numerical modeling and data analysis of terrestrial, solar, and planetary atmospheres.

3.2.1 Radiative Transfer in Planetary Atmospheres

There is a continuing need for radiative transfer modeling studies in support of NRL-SSD’s remote sensing activities. Processes of interest include photoionization, photodissociation, auroral electron transport, excitation by photoelectrons and auroral electrons, photon transport, photochemical reactions (for calculating ion and minor neural densities), and transmission effects for emission from the extreme ultraviolet (EUV), far ultraviolet (FUV) and the near infrared (NIR).

Validated models are required that accurately describe these processes and derive photoelectron and auroral spectra, production rates (by solar photons, photoelectrons, and chemical reactions), ion and neutral densities and spectral radiances as a function of look angle (from zenith and nadir viewing) and wavelength. Spectral radiances must include all important emission features from the EUV to NIR. The output from these models will be used in sensitivity studies, for parameterization of production rates (to provide a fast technique of their specification in future applications to satellite data), data analyses (rocket and satellite), and development of remote sensing algorithms. Specific activities in support of this research shall include: (1) modeling experiments under the direction of NRL-SSD personnel to describe solar EUV, FUV, and NIR radiances and retrieve densities of chemical species; (2) analysis of satellite remote sensing data sets to understand the behavior of both solar EUV and X-ray irradiance for improving predictive models of this irradiance.

3.2.2 Global and Regional Atmospheric Modeling Research

NRL-SSD has a long-term investment in atmospheric modeling research in the 10-100 km altitude region known as the middle atmosphere. This research requires the coordinated use of gravity-wave ray methods, fluid dynamical theory, fully nonlinear three-dimensional modeling on both regional and global scales, parameterizations, state-of-the-art data-assimilation and predictability tools, validation against observational gravity-wave-resolving measurements from ground-based, suborbital and satellite instruments

For this component of the atmospheric modeling task, the contractor will provide support for both global and regional atmospheric modeling on both local computing systems and shared DSRC systems. Specific activities shall include: (1) spatial-ray, Fourier-ray and ray-density numerical methods for predicting deep propagation of atmospheric gravity waves from realistic sources and through realistic background atmospheres from surface through the thermosphere; (2) execution of specific NRL experiments using Navy both global and regional numerical weather and climate prediction systems on local systems and on massively parallel DoD High Performance Computing (HPC) systems; (3) direct interface of ray models to Navy global and regional prediction systems; (4) comparison of ray solutions to satellite and suborbital observations for research and validation applications; (5) historical forecast and reanalysis experiments supporting NRL 6.2 and 6.4 programs in Navy numerical weather prediction. The contractor will obtain the necessary accounts at DoD Shared Resource Centers (DSRCs) to port code from version control repositories to both local and DSRC high-performance computing (HPC) platforms, compile, test, and optimize code performance on all of these platforms.

A continuing area of research within NRL-SSD is the extension of Navy high-altitude NWP systems to include the atmospheric region from 0-500 km altitude encompassing the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere. These new “whole atmosphere” modeling and data assimilation capabilities are needed provide critical information on radio-wave propagation in the ionosphere for Navy applications.

For this component of the atmospheric modeling task, the contractor will provide support for coupling neutral atmospheric numerical models with first principle models of the thermosphere/ionosphere system on both local computing systems and shared DSRC systems.

Specific activities shall include: (1) software integration between neutral atmosphere and ionospheric models; (2) execution of test and production integrations of Navy coupled atmosphere-ionosphere modeling systems and post-processing of output for scientific analysis; (3) validation and verification of both neutral atmosphere and ionosphere models; (4) perform necessary software upgrades of both neutral atmosphere and ionospheric models; (5) perform code optimization to improve numerical efficiency; (6) perform code adaptation necessary to port models to new hardware architectures.. The contractor will also provide support for parallel processing on both local and DoD HPC computing systems. The contractor will obtain the necessary accounts at DSRCs in order to port code from version control repositories to local and DSRC platforms, compile, test, and optimize code performance on these platforms.

3.3 The contractor shall provide support for radio signal analysis.

There is a continuing need for R&D support for the design, development, and deployment of next generation signal analysis tools as well as scientific analysis of data collected by NRL. This work is done in “Real Time” as well as through post-processing analyses. The work also includes but is not limited to the incorporation of next generation time delay of arrival (TDOA) geolocation algorithms for a variety of sensor configurations. The work includes identifying and developing error budgets for the geolocation tools. Some possible error sources are: receiver position, terrain, ionospheric and tropospheric effects on signals, and system biases. The contractor will be responsible for performing routine processing of data and making results available to NRL-SSD personnel and collaborators.

Specific activities shall include: (1) responsibility for installation and maintenance of computer systems used to develop and test analysis tools before deployment; (2) designing, implementing, and maintaining strict configuration management on all aspects of the evolving software and algorithms.

Personnel selected shall have a final secret clearance at time of proposal submission.

Section 4 Key Personnel

Senior Scientist: Perform scientific requirements management and analysis with application to the modeling of physical domains; develop physics-based models of the neutral atmosphere and/or plasmasphere.

Senior Physicist supporting modeling tasks: Perform theoretical research and numerical computation of wave propagation in stratified fluids, with the implementation and analysis of ray methods to atmospheric wave problems at all levels of the atmosphere; application of finite difference and advanced spectral element methods for computational fluid dynamics in numerical models prediction models of the geospacer environment.

Senior Physicist supporting satellite hardware tasks: perform ultraviolet (UV) remote sensing instrumentation calibration and operation with demonstrated ability to devise and perform novel calibration techniques; develop analysis algorithms for line-fitting and instrument.

Senior Software Engineer: Perform database design; perform interpretation of scientific results from geospacer remote sensing; apply geolocation algorithms to ionospheric modeling.

Senior Engineer: Perform computer modeling of time delay of arrival (TDOA) geolocation;

analyze ionospheric effects on radio wave propagation and orbit analysis.

Section 5 Deliverables

Data deliverables will be provided as described in the following Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) items:

A001 – Monthly Contractor On-Site Labor Report: The Contractor shall deliver the On-Site Labor Report no later than five (5) days after the end of each reporting month and in a format as directed by the COR. The report must include as a minimum the following data: reporting period, contract number, contract value, current funding, amount expended in current period, total expended to date, date submitted, and all labor (including subcontractors). The report must show employee name, number of hours, and total amount billed for contractor employees working on-site at NRL.

If the contractor employees worked on multiple tasks (as defined by the COR), the number of hours worked on each task must be shown separately.

A002 – Monthly Technical Status Report: The Contractor shall provide technical status reports in a format as directed by the COR. The report shall describe, by task, the work accomplished during the current period and planned work to be accomplished in the next period. The report shall also summarize the probable areas of concern. The first submission shall be no later than forty-five (45) days after contract award. Subsequent submissions shall be on the 5th day of each month.

A004 - Software Documentation: The Contractor shall provide technical status reports in a format as directed by the COR. The report shall describe, by task, the work accomplished during the current period and planned work to be accomplished in the next period. The report shall also summarize the probable areas of concern.

A005 – Technical Analysis Reports: As required, the Contractor shall provide technical reports for COR review and approval for each completed analysis. Technical documentation shall include designs, schematics, requirements documents, procedures, systems block diagrams, field integration documents, interface control documents, as built drawings, quality assurance test results, etc.

A006 - Final Report: The Contractor shall provide a final report. The final report shall include, at a minimum, a comprehensive interpretation of findings under this contract. The report shall be submitted to the COR no later than sixty (60) days after completion of the contract.