A -- NPOESS POLARIMETER SOURCES SOUGHT FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST & CAPABILITY

Notice Date

May 23, 2001

Contracting Office

NPOESS/Integrated Program Office, NOAA/SAO Procurement Staff, 8455 Colesville Road, Suite 1450, Silver Spring, MD 20910

ZIP Code

20910

Solicitation Number

52-SPNA-1-00099

Response Due

July 9, 2001

Point of Contact

Jay W. Moore, Contracting Ofcr, 301-427-2126, 112; Maj. Carol Welsh, Space Segment Mgr., 301-427-2080, 103

E-Mail Address

Contracting Officer (jay.moore@noaa.gov)

Description

This is a solicitation for information or planning purposes, in accordance with the FAR Clause 52.215-3. This announcement is an expression of interest and capability only, and does not commit the Government to pay any response preparation cost. All interested and responsible offerors that indicate corporate interest, background and capability in response to the criteria below will be considered for any potential future RFP release. Therefore serious respondents are requested to identify themselves and provide the responses below. Respondents are requested to e-mail the point of contact of their intent to respond. The Government is soliciting data from respondents that have background and capability with a polarimeter instrument to be used in remote sensing of clouds and aerosols in support of the NOAA/NPOESS program, as discussed below. The Government requests information that will assist it to evaluate: (a) the respondent's notional technical approach and capability of delivering the measurement goals of the notional NPOESS polarimeter instrument; (b) the respondent's experience and capability in developing a polarimeter sensor and algorithms that can work in conjunction with the NPOESS/VIIRS instrument; (c) the maturity of similar, existing sensors and hardware, from which the respondent will have access to leverage its experience to develop the NPOESS/Polarimeter; (d) the proposed corporate and principal individuals on the technical team; (e) the recent, direct, and relative experience of the respondent's technical team; (f) the realism of the respondent's budgetary ROM costs; (g) and the rationale for the respondent's estimated schedule, submitted with milestones and principal tasks, for both development and production phases. Innovative solutions, approaches or techniques to address the objective are welcome. These responses will enable the Government to identify from among the industry any teams that have demonstrated the capability to develop the proposed NPOESS Polarimeter. The NPOESS/IPO will use the responses to assess the maturity of the existing or proposed designs and models, and to formulate its acquisition strategy. Through the identification of the responding industry and teams we can realize whether there exists a realistic corporate commitment to organizing a team to meet the Government's technical, cost, schedule, and programmatic goals for the NPOESS Polarimeter. Following the evaluation of your responses we will make a decision on whether or not to release an RFP for a Phase 1 contract(s). Description: The notional Polarimeter is intended to fly on the 0930 ascending node NPOESS spacecraft, potentially as early as 2008. The goal of this instrument is to measure along-track scene intensity, as a function of wavelength and polarization, to determine aerosol optical thickness, aerosol particle size, cloud particle size distribution, aerosol refractive index, and single scattering albedo and shape. The instrument would work in conjunction with the NPOESS/VIIRS instrument data products. The Government concept sensor has the following characteristics: (1) Bands: Visible-NIR = 6 bands (2 in Raleigh scattering regime between 400 and 470 microns, and 4 bands matched to the VIIRS bands); (2) SWIR = 3 bands. The FOV needs to be approximately 20 km (multiple FOVs are acceptable). The Polarization accuracy is: 0.2% in 4 linear polarizations of 0 deg., 45 deg., 90 deg., and 135 deg.). Instrument polarizations of less than 0.05% and characterized pre-launch to an accuracy of 0.1%. The Environmental Data Record (EDR) performance requirements are contained in the draft NPOESS IORD-II, paragraphs 4.1.6.2.1; 4.1.6.2.2; 4.1.6.2.3; and 4.1.6.3.3. These can be viewed from the web site referenced on this advertisement at http://npoesslib.ipo.noaa.gov/. Responses shall be treated as business proprietary, in accordance with the respondent's page notations. Any non-proprietary claims should be identified in the respondent's documentation. Pages should be printed on 8 x 11 inch paper, with type no smaller than 12 point. Figures, tables and charts are not limited to 8 x 11, but must be folded to that size. Documents shall be submitted in hard copy and electronic form, in Microsoft WORD, EXCEL, or PowerPoint. A cover sheet should be provided for each evaluation criterion. The maximum total pages are limited to 25, including all figures, tables and charts. An original and five (5) copies of all information shall be submitted to the Contracting Officer. Also include information on the proposal title, the lead organization responding, the type of business, and contact points for members of the technical and business team. ALL INTERESTED AND QUALIFIED VENDORS WILL BE CONSIDERED. See Notes 25 and 26.

Web Link

Electronic Library (http://npoesslib.ipo.noaa.gov/)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010525/ASOL013.HTM (W-143 SN50M9K6)