US Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), PGAS, Procurement Operations Division, 1325 East West Highway, Station 4301, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3283

D -- SOFTWARE SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE TOVS/RTOVS/ATOVS SOUNDING SYSTEMS SCIENCE SOFTWARE SUPPORT. SOL Contract 50-DDNE-4-00155 POC Aileen B. Redding, Contract Specialist (301) 713-0839, Ina R. Merson, Contracting Officer (301) 713-0839. DOC/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) intends to negotiate on a non-competitive basis with Hughes-STX under its existing contract 50-DDNE-4-00155 for a modification to add 24,000 hours of science software services to support the impending launch of NOAA-K with science, system, and software for the Revised TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder (RTOVS), Advanced TOVS (ATOVS), and AMSU-B systems. This additional support, under the existing contract for RTOVS, ATOVS, and AMSU-B systems includes reactive science software for instrument malfunctions, re-hosting the systems to a different computer environment, and both pre- and post-launch operational preparations. Also included shall be upgrades to the LAN and Unix based EDGEIS data visualization software which has been developed by the incumbent contractor. This customized software runs on PCS and RISC workstations attached to the NESDIS/FPDT LAN and is for the capture, transfer and display of satellite raw data and products. ATOVS science and system software algorithms must be evaluated and corrected or replaced if necessary, to achieve current TOVS operational product accuracy. Any contractor assuming these duties would need to have a knowledge of the RTOVS/ATOVS and AMSU-B relevant cloud detection, limb correction, transmittance generation, first guess, retrieval, and RAOB/retrieval matchup algorithms. Specifically, these tasks that must be completed prior to the launch of NOAA-K include the following: 1) Integration and testing of proven software upgrades into the ATOVS software system including, retrieval algorithm, cloud detection, and offline eigenvector, and retrieval operator systems. 2) Integration and testing of existing cloud clearing techniques into the ATOVS software system. 3) Optimization and parallel processing of the ATOVS software, on the CRAY J916 computer. 4) Development, testing, and integration of the system architecture for operational processing of the ATOVS software system. 5) Integration and testing of existing graphics capability on the CRAY J916 computer in support of ATOVS. 6) Day "0" capability for the creation of MSU "1B" datasets from AMSU-A "1B" datasets for an ATOVS fallback capability. 7) Integration of the Climate parameter Sub-System from the RTOVS to ATOVS system. 8) Support for the generation of coefficients related to correcting limb radiances to nadir specifically for the AMSU-A, AMSU-B, and AVHRR. 9) Additional upgrades to both the retrieval "first guess" and the temperature/water vapor retrieval. 10) Support, development, integration, and testing for the determination of the most correct atmospheric transmittance model to be used for RTOVS, ATOVS, and AMSU-B.The RTOVS, ATOVS, and AMSU-B product processing systems are extremely large and complex and run 24 hours per day as a two spacecraft operation. These systems include code written in VS FORTRAN, IBM Assembly Language, JCL, DOS, CLIST, MS Quick Basic and C-Language. The RTOVS, ATOVS, and AMSU-B software systems were delivered to NESDIS through a separate contract. RTOVS is scheduled to replace TOVS when products can be made to be as accurate as the current operation. The RTOVS system processes data from the same suite ofinstruments as TOVS except that RTOVS will include the AVHRR for cloud detection and cloud clearing. The ATOVS and AMSU-B systems shall be required for processing data from the HIRS/3, AMSU-A,AVHRR/3, and AMSU-B instruments onboard the NOAA-K, L, and M series of satellites. This increased "level-of-effort" is primarily due to changes in the operational computer platforms and changing science requirements as a result of the RTOVS software system checkout over the last two years. This increased "level-of-effort" of 24,000 hours will be applied to the remaining two and one half years of the current contract. Any contractor assuming these duties must have intimate knowledge ofthe TOVS/RTOVS/ATOVS program plus have properly trained personnel who have experience supporting new satellite launch checkout and troubleshooting a new operational sounding systems. Vendors who believe they can provide the required services are invited to submit, in writing, an affirmative response demonstrating the ability to immediately assume the above duties without disruption to the current operation and demonstrating a cost benefit to the Government. Any written responses must be received no later than 15 days after the publication of this synopsis. In order to be considered responsive, the correspondence must be accompanied by a written narrative statement of capability, including detailed technical information and other technical literature, sufficient to permit agency analysis in order to determine a bona fide capability to meet the Government's requirements. Responses without the required documentation will be considered nonresponsible. This is not a formal notice ofsolicitation. See Note 22. (0366)

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