Jane Edwards
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a solicitation for the procurement of commercial radio occultation data for use in weather models, situational awareness products and other operational systems.
A notice posted Tuesday says NOAA intends to award one or more firm-fixed-price contracts to purchase global navigation satellite system RO data under the Commercial Weather Data Operational Buy small business set-aside program.
The agency plans to share near-real-time RO data with other meteorological partner agencies as well as historical data and products with the community in support of research and climate monitoring efforts in accordance with data rights indicated in contract terms.
The performance period will run from Nov. 12, 2020 to Nov. 11, 2022. Proposals are due Sept. 3.
Aside from the solicitation, NOAA released instructions to offerors for the first commercial RO data delivery order. The initial order calls for the contractor to deliver Level 0 and Level 1a data from 500 GNSS radio occultations each day for 30 consecutive days and provide pricing for a license to share data with U.S. government agencies.
