Temperature & Moisture Advanced Technology Evolution (TMATE)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), specifically its National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Services (NESDIS) division under the Department of Commerce, issued a Special Notice on February 19, 2026 for the Temperature & Moisture Advanced Technology Evolution (TMATE) project. This competitive Request for Project Proposal seeks industry-led solutions to augment NOAA's microwave sounding observations in support of numerical weather prediction. NOAA intends to award one or more Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) under Section 301 of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017. The opportunity utilizes a two-phase competitive selection process designed to identify viable commercial and industry-developed capabilities. This is a civilian contracting opportunity with no set-asides applied, open to qualified contractors across all sectors.

The primary objective is to identify and evaluate temperature and moisture radiance profile collection solutions in polar orbit with operational readiness by 2030 to address capability gaps in atmospheric microwave sounding data used for meteorological models. White papers were originally due March 9, 2026, but the deadline was extended to March 16, 2026 at 3:00 PM Eastern/12:00 PM Pacific, with questions due by February 27, 2026. Phase I white papers must not exceed ten pages (excluding cover page) and must include Rough Order of Magnitude pricing; offerors rated "Favorable" on all evaluation criteria will advance to Phase II. Phase II requires detailed technical responses, complete pricing broken into Government-funded and company-funded portions, milestone schedules, and intellectual property descriptions from selected offerors. Awards will be structured as Firm Fixed Price agreements with delivery periods not exceeding 24 months, and any resulting data must be delivered to NOAA and released publicly consistent with NOAA Administrative Order 212-15B. All proposals should be submitted to brooke.bernold@noaa.gov and anthony.eubanks@noaa.gov, with NOAA intending to finalize agreements by September 1, 2026.