UT Chiroptera SOW May 2022.pdf

Attachment A

ICESat-2 Airborne Lidar Survey for 2022 Summer Sea Ice Campaign

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, BUREAU OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

JOHN A. AND KATHERINE G. JACKSON SCHOOL OF GEOSCIENCES

AUSTIN, TEXAS

STATEMENT OF WORK

April 2022

1. GENERAL

This contract is for support to plan and execute a mission to collect airborne lidar and imagery data in July 2022 in support of the ICESat-2 spaceborne lidar mission.

One of the main objectives of the NASA ICESat-2 Mission is to measure the changing height of our home planet. As the name implies, the ICESat-2 mission has a focus on the ice-covered regions of our planet known as the cryosphere. ICESat-2 carries the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), the sole instrument aboard the ICESat-2 observatory. ATLAS emits short duration pulses of green laser light 10,000 times per second in each of its’ 6 beams. By measuring the round-trip time of flight of these laser pulses, the ICESat-2 data products enable scientists to measure the height of ice sheets, glaciers, trees, oceans, and sea ice. The primary goals of the ICESat-2 sea ice data products are to enable measurement of the sea ice (frozen sea water floating in the polar oceans) height, and compare the sea ice height with the height of the ocean water it is floating in. The height difference between the ocean and the sea ice is called the sea ice freeboard, and it is closely related to the sea ice thickness. Sea ice grows and expands during polar winter, and melts and contracts due to warmer weather in summer. In particular, measuring the summer sea ice height is difficult, owing to the sea ice surface being covered with slushy melting snow, melt ponds, and rapidly decreasing sea ice thickness. The goal of this airborne campaign is to measure the height of sea ice during July 2022 to provide a reference data set to evaluate and improve the space-based sea ice height measurements of ICESat-2. This campaign will be conducted out of Thule Air Force Base in Greenland and will use NASA’s Gulfstream-V aircraft operated by NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Specific targets for airborne data collection will be dictated by weather and safety considerations.

2. Data Collection, Processing, And Quality Control The contractor shall provide for data analysis, data assurance and quality control of its data products collected as part of this summer sea ice campaign. These data will include height measurements collected by the contractor using the Chiroptera instrument suite. This instrument suite collects elevation data using both 532nm (green) laser light, which is also used by the ATLAS instrument, as well as 1064nm (infrared) laser light, which provides an unambiguous measurement of the air-snow (or air-water) interface. The Chiroptera imagery system will collect visual imagery to provide context and scene classification of the associated dual-color lidar measurements. The contractor shall provide software consulting and data analysis support for the use of these data products by the ICESat-2 mission.

This contract will support data collection and processing for up to 7 flights of up to 7.5 hours duration each (52.5 hours) while operating on NASA’s G-V aircraft out of Thule, Greenland. This contract will support all aspects of the integration and deployment of the instrument and instrument team to Thule in support of this campaign.

3. Specific Activities In Support of ICESat-2 Summer Sea Ice Lidar Campaign:

The contractor shall support the development, planning and execution of the ICESat-2 airborne lidar survey for 2022, including:

1. The receipt and installation of the Chrioptera instrument suite at NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s G-V aircraft.

2. Supporting the mechanical, electrical and optical integration of the Chiroptera instrument suite in the G-V aircraft.

3. Providing necessary personnel for the operation of the Chiroptera instrument suite during the July 11-27th 2022 deployment to Thule, Greenland for the data collection flights.

4. Coordinating with the ICESat-2 Project Science Office and G-V air crew to plan for science flights over the Arctic Ocean.

5. Providing sufficient data storage for up to 7 flights of up to 7.5 hours in duration (52.5 total flight hours) to support the scientific objectives of this airborne campaign.

6. Operation of the Chiroptera instrument suite during data collection flights and conducting necessary quality assurance, quality assessment, and data backup activities at the conclusion of each flight.

7. Following best practices for the safe operation of a laser instrument aboard a NASA aircraft.

8. Following best practices for airborne lidar calibration.

9. Providing necessary support for the de-integration of the Chiroptera instrument suite at the conclusion of the campaign.

10. After the data collection period, the contractor shall provide vector lidar data sets (non-uniform, merged, point cloud data of topographical and bathymetric data sets in 1x1 km tiles in LAS v1.2 format with any vertical calibrations applied); raster lidar data sets (digital surface model of all surfaces in GeoTiff-32 format at 1m horizontal spacing); geolocated images from the Chiroptera optical camera system; and any other supplementary data sets such as GPS ground control observations, aircraft attitude and trajectory reports, and any calibration reports. These data shall be delivered to the ICESat-2 Project Science Office by 31 December 2022.

11. Participation in bi-weekly telecons with the ICESat-2 Project Science Office and external researchers who will be analyzing the data collected as part of this airborne campaign.

These calls will provide a forum to assess progress and discuss any problems arising before, during, or after data collection.

12. Delivering a final project report on or before the end of the Period of Performance.