The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $172,820 - Friday the 6th of January 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  THIS PROPOSAL IS IN RESPONSE TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR "ENHANCING THE CAPABILITY OF COMPUTATIONAL EARTH SYSTEM MODEL AND XASA DATA FOR OPERATION AND ASSESSMENT". ONE OF THE OBJECTIVES OF THE CALL IS TO ACCELERATE THE OPERATIONAL USE OF RESEARCH IN THE JCSDA SYSTEM, IN THE AREA OF COMMON IR AND MW EMISSIVITY DATABASES FOR USE BY ALL PARTNERS. THE OBJECTIVE OF OUR PROPOSAL IS PRECISELY TO PROVIDE SUCH DATABASES OVER LAND, EFFICIENTLY INTERFACED WITH THE COMMUNITY RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODEL, FOR USE IN THE JCSDA. IN THE MICROWAVES AS WELL AS IN THE INFRARED, SEVERAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO MAKE ASSIMILATION OF SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS IN NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION MODELS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT OVER LAND THAN OVER OCEAN. FIRST, LAND SURFACE EMISSIVITIES ARE HIGHLY VARIABLE IN SPACE AND TIME, ESPECIALLY IN THE MICROWAVES. SECOND, IN THE MICROWAVES, THE LAND SURFACE EMISSIVITIES ARE MUCH HIGHER THAN THE OCEAN ONES, MAKING THE SURFACE CONTRIBUTION TO THE SIGNAL MUCH LARGER. FINALLY, LAND SURFACE EMISSIVITIES ARE VERY COMPLEX TO MODEL, FROM ARID SURFACES TO DENSE VEGETATION OR SNOW, BEING DEPENDENT UPON SURFACE PARAMETERS THAT ARC DIFFICULT TO ESTIMATE, ON A GLOBAL BASIS (E.G., SOIL MOISTURE, SOIL ROUGHNESS, LITHOLOGY, SNOW COVER AND PROPERTIES). AS A RESULTS, SURFACE-SENSITIVE OBSERVATIONS ARE OFTEN UNDER USED IN THE ASSIMILATION SCHEMES OVER LAND. OUR GOAL IS TO PROVIDE RELIABLE LAND SURFACE EMISSIVITIES TO THE JSDA NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION SYSTEM, IN ORDER TO ASSIMILATE MORE SURFACE-SENSITIVE SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS OVER LAND, AND PROVIDE BETTER WEATHER FORECASTS. DURING THE LAST YEARS, EFFORTS HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED TO DEVELOP GLOBAL DATASETS OF LAND SURFACE EMISSIVITIES AT BOTH INFRARED AND MICROWAVE FREQUENCIES, DIRECTLY CALCULATED FROM SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS. THEY HAVE SHOWN POTENTIAL TO IMPROVE THE RETRIEVAL OF ATMOSPHERIC PARAMETERS, NAMELY WATER VAPOR AND TEMPERATURE OVER LAND, IN RESEARCH MODE. IN THIS STUDY, WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP THE NECESSARY TOOLS FOR A CONVENIENT USE OF THIS EMISSIVITY INFORMATION AS BACKGROUND IN THE VARIATIONAL ASSIMILATION OF THE OPERATIONAL MICROWAVE AND INFRARED OBSERVATIONS IN THE JCSDA NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION SYSTEM. THE WORK WILL BE JOINTLY PERFORMED IN THE INFRARED AND IN THE MICROWAVE, FOR A CONVENIENT AND CONSISTENT HANDLING OF THE INFORMATION. THIS PROJECT WILL BE CONDUCTED BY A TEAM OF INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED SCIENTISTS IN MICROWAVE AND INFRARED REMOTE SENSING. A STRONG COLLABORATION WITH NOAA PARTNERS (TWO NOAA COLLABORATORS) WILL ENSURE AN EFFICIENT TRANSITION TO THE OPERATION WITHIN THE JCSDA. OUR TEAM HAS A STRONG EXPERIENCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SATELLITE-DERIVED EMISSIVITY ATLASES, AND IN THE PHYSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE EMISSIVITY PROCESSES IN BOTH WAVELENGTH RANGES. THIS EXPERIENCE WILL ALSO FACILITATE COMPARISONS OF THE EMISSIVITY DATABASES WITH EMISSIVITY MODELS, WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF IMPROVING THE MODELS THAT WILL BE USED IN THE ASSIMILATION SCHEME ONCE THEY REACH MATURITY. DURING THIS STUDY, THE COMMUNITY RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODEL WILL BE AUGMENTED WITH AN EMISSIVITY INTERFACE LINKED TO THE EMISSIVITY ATLASES, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE BACKGROUND EMISSIVITY ESTIMATES FOR THE JCSDA ASSIMILATION SCHEME, ALONG WITH THEIR RELATED ERROR COVARIANCE MATRICES. IN A FIRST STEP, WE WILL PRODUCE THE EMISSIVITY DATABASES FOR CURRENTLY ASSIMILATED INSTRUMENTS IN THE MICROWAVE AND IN THE INFRARED. SECOND WE WILL EVALUATE THE CONSISTENCY OF THE DERIVED INFRARED AND MICROWAVE EMISSIVITY DATABASES. COMPARISONS WITH EMISSIVITY MODEL OUTPUTS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THIS FRAMEWORK, TO PREPARE THE TRANSITION TO THE USE OF EMISSIVITY MODELS IN THE NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTION SCHEME. THIRD, WE WILL DEVELOP THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE EMISSIVITY DATABASE AND THE COMMUNITY RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODEL, FOR USE IN THE JCSDA SYSTEM. FINALLY, THE NEW EMISSIVITY TOOL WILL BE TESTED IN THE JSDA FRAMEWORK, WITH THE HELP OF THE JCSDA PERSONNEL, AND SEVERAL TEST CASES ARE SUGGESTED.

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