The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $9,900 - Wednesday the 2nd of January 2013
  Energy Department
  SOUTHWESTERN POWER ADMINISTRATION
  SINGLE NODE LICENSE ANNUAL MAINTENANCE AND BASIC SUPPORT (3 YEARS)

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• $98,000 - Tuesday the 2nd of July 2013
  Bureau Of Reclamation
  SALT LAKE CITY REGIONAL OFFICE
  OTHER FUNCTIONS - RIVERWARE MODELING SOFTWARE TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES.

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• $95,000 - Tuesday the 22nd of May 2012
  Department Of Navy
  OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH
  COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES, AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS

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• $94,749 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  WE PROPOSE TO EVOLVE THE CARBON MONITORING SYSTEM FLUX PILOT PROJECT FUNDED UNDER PHASE 1 INTO A FRAMEWORK THAT INTEGRATES OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON ALL MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE CARBON-CYCLE-ANTHROPOGENIC SYSTEM ANTHROPOGENIC, TERRESTRIAL, OCEANIC, ATMOSPHERIC IN A TOP-DOWN CO2 ATTRIBUTION SYSTEM CONSTRAINED BY ATMOSPHERIC SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS. THIS EXPANDED FRAMEWORK WILL ENABLE A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE AND A MEANS OF QUANTIFYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CLIMATE MITIGATION POLICIES. THIS CMS-FPP IS MOTIVATED BY THE INCREASE IN TROPOSPHERIC CO2 FROM ANTHROPOGENIC EMISSIONS, WHICH IS THE SINGLE LARGEST DRIVER OF OBSERVED AND PREDICTED CLIMATE CHANGE [FORSTER ET AL, 2007]. HOWEVER, ROUGHLY HALF OF THE CO2 PRODUCED FROM THESE EMISSIONS HAS BEEN REMOVED BY TERRESTRIAL AND OCEAN SINKS. CONSEQUENTLY, THE FUTURE TRAJECTORY OF CLIMATE FORCING WILL DEPEND ON FUTURE EMISSIONS AND ON THE CAPACITY OF THE CARBON-CYCLE TO ABSORB MORE CO2 [FRIEDLINGSTEIN, 2008]. RECENT YEARS HAVE SEEN AN ACCELERATION OF FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS AND SIGNS OF AN ONSET OF CARBON-CYCLE FEEDBACKS [CANADELL ET AL, 2007]. SINCE 2005, FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS HAVE BEEN REGIONALLY REDISTRIBUTED TOWARDS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, WHICH NOW MAKE UP MORE THAN HALF OF CO2 EMISSIONS (>4 PGC/YR) [PETERS ET AL, 2012]. WHILE THE GLOBAL CARBON BUDGET AND ITS PARTITIONING BETWEEN ANTHROPOGENIC, TERRESTRIAL, AND OCEANIC FLUXES ARE REASONABLY UNDERSTOOD, THE CONTRIBUTION OF REGIONAL DRIVERS TO THAT BUDGET ARE NOT [CANADELL ET AL, 2010]. CONSEQUENTLY, UNCERTAINTY IN THE ATTRIBUTION OF CO2 ACCUMULATION RATE ON A YEAR-TO-YEAR BASIS TO THOSE DRIVERS LIMITS OUR CAPACITY TO QUANTIFY THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CLIMATE MITIGATION POLICIES [LE QUERE ET AL, 2009]. IN ORDER TO REDUCE UNCERTAINTY IN CO2 ATTRIBUTION, WE WILL SIMULTANEOUSLY IMPROVE AND AUGMENT ALL MAJOR ASPECTS OF THE CURRENT CMS-FPP: NEW SATELLITES OBSERVATIONS, AN ADDITIONAL TERRESTRIAL ECO-SYSTEM MODEL, A NEW FOSSIL FUEL ASSIMILATION SYSTEM, UPDATED OCEAN ASSIMILATION ALGORITHMS, AND IMPROVED ATMOSPHERIC INVERSION ALGORITHMS. THE CMS-FPP PHASE 2 WILL GENERATE A SUITE OF NEW AND UPDATED PRODUCTS COVERING 7/2009-2011 INCLUDING NEW GLOBAL SPATIALLY RESOLVED CO2 SOURCES AND SINKS, NEW HIGH RESOLUTION GLOBAL FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS, BETTER ESTIMATES OF OCEANIC CO2 AIR-SEA EXCHANGE, NEW ESTIMATES OF GLOBAL ABOVE-GROUND BIOMASS, AND REFINEMENTS IN TOP-DOWN ATTRIBUTION AND UNCERTAINTY ALGORITHMS. PRODUCTS GENERATED FROM BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN ESTIMATES WILL BE MADE PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE THROUGH CARBON.NASA.GOV AND LINKED TO CMSFLUX.JPL.NASA.GOV. THROUGH THESE UPDATES, THE CMS-FPP WILL PLAY A CRUCIAL AND ON-GOING ROLE IN ASSESSING THE CURRENT CAPABILITY OF SPACE-BORNE OBSERVING SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE INTEGRATED CARBON-CYCLE-ANTHROPOGENIC SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON CLIMATE FORCING.

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• $92,324 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  WE PROPOSE TO EXPLORE THE STRUCTURE OF BLAZAR JETS ON 10-PARSEC SCALES WHERE RADIO EMISSION IS THOUGHT TO ORIGINATE AND TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT THE BULK OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION ORIGINATES ON SIMILAR SCALES TO THE RADIO EMISSION. IN PARTICULAR, WE INTEND TO: 1) STUDY THE ENERGETIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BRIGHTEST FERMI/LAT FLARES IN BLAZARS UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT THEY ARE PRODUCED ON 10-PC SCALES; 2) INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION AND ASSOCIATED PHENOMENA - MINIJETS AND EXTREME PARTICLE ACCELERATION TO OPERATE IN HIGH-ENERGY-DENSITY REGIONS OF THE JET, SO FAR FROM THE BLACK HOLE; AND 3) EXTEND OUR EXISTING RADIATIVE MODELS TO CONDITIONS CHARACTERISTIC OF THE 10-PC SCALE AND APPLY THEM TO TEST THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GAMMA-RAY AND RADIO ACTIVITY IN BLAZARS.

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• $9,200 - Monday the 3rd of December 2012
  National Institutes Of Health
  NIH, NIDA, OD OM OA OFC ACQUISITIONS
  OTHER FUNCTION UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT DENVER:1188356 - POTS# 12-001353

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• $89,000 - Friday the 20th of November 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  EMERGING EVIDENCE FROM PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED STUDIES OF GROUND-PENETRATING RADAR (GPR) DATA SHOW THAT LOCAL SURFACE SLOPE AND WIND SPEED MODIFY THE REGIONAL SURFACE MASS BALANCE ON THE ICE SHEETS, REDISTRIBUTING SNOW LOCALLY ONTO WINDWARD SLOPES, AND REMOVING IT FROM THE LEEWARD SIDES OF UNDULATIONS (SPIKES ET AT, 2004; KING ET AI., 2004; ARCANE ET AI., 2005; FREZZOTTI ET AI., 2007). ALTHOUGH THESE RELATIONSHIPS HAVE BEEN SUSPECTED FOR SOME TIME (BLACK AND BUDD, 1964; GOW AND ROWLAND, 1965; WHILLANS, 1975), A LACK OF ACCURATE DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL (OEM) INFONNATION AT THE REQUIRED SCALE (-500 M TRUE SPATIAL RESOLUTION), AND LIMITED AVAILABILITY OF HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION ACCUMULATION RATES OVER ICE SHEET UNDULATIONS, HAVE HAMPERED THE ABILITY OF INVESTIGATORS TO DERIVE THE EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPS GOVERNING SURFACE MASS BALANCE VARIATIONS. COMBINING ALTIMETRY SENSORS SUCH AS CRYOSAT-2 AND ICESAT WITH IMAGING SENSORS SUCH AS MODIS CAN AUGMENT THE ALTIMETRY-DERIVED DEMS OF THE ICE SHEETS VIA HOTOCLINOMETRY. TOGETHER THE DATA SETS CAN BE USED TO GENERATE IMPROVED-RESOLUTION, SPATIALLY CONTINUOUS SLOPE MAPS AT THE REQUIRED SCALES (SCAMBOS AND FAHNESTOCK, 1998; SCAMBOS AND HARAN, 2002). IMPROVED METHODS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE TO INVERT THE INTEMALLAYER STRUCTURE REVEALED BY GPRS INTO ROBUST, SPATIALLY CONTINUOUS ACCUMULATION RATE ESTIMATES. THE NEAR-SURFACE INTERNAL LAYERS IN ICE SHEETS HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED TO BE ISOEHRONES (SPIKES ET AT, 2004; VAUGHAN ET AI., 2004). LEE FLOW COMPLICATES THE DETERMINATION OF A SIMPLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBSERVED RADAR LAYER DEPTHS AND ACCUMULATION RATE. HOWEVER, RECENT MODELING STUDIES (E.G. LEONARD ET AT, 2004; ARCONE ET AT, 2005; WADDINGTON ET AL., 2007) HAVE SHOWN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO SEPARATE THESE EFFECTS. THE PIS FOR THIS STUDY HAVE DEVELOPED THE IMAGE-ENHANCING DEM MAPPING METHOD, AND HAVE ACQUIRED (OR HAVE ACCESS TO) HUNDREDS OF KILOMETERS OFGPR PROFILES OVER A VARIETY OF TERRAINS IN ANTARCTICA. WITH EXTENSIVE IMAGE-ENHANCED OEMS AND ROBUST ACCUMULATION-RATE ESTIMATES IN HAND (AFTER THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PROPOSED WORK), LOCAL SURFACE SLOPE INFORMATION CAN BE COMPARED WITH RADAR-DERIVED ACCUMULATION RATES AND NEAR-SURFACE WIND FIELD MODELS. WE ANTICIPATE THAT THIS WILL LEAD TO EMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPS, VALID OVER AT LEAST REGIONAL SCALES, IN AREAS WHERE EXTENSIVE GPR SURVEYS HAVE BEEN MADE SPANNING A VARIETY OF LOCAL SLOPE AND WIND DIRECTIONS. MOREOVER, BY COMBINING SUB-SURFACE BACKSCATTER INFORMATION FROM SAR AND SCATTEROMETER DATA WITH THE ABOVE RELATIONSHIPS (WIND MODELS AND GPR-DERIVED ACCUMULATION RATES), THE IMPROVED DEMS CAN BE USED TO PREDICT SURFACE ACCUMULATION OVER THE UNDULATING TERRAIN OF THE ICE SHEET. THE PROPOSED STUDY HAS THE PROMISE OF REFINING THE TOTAL NET SURFACE ACCUMULATION FOR ANTARCTICA, BY FAR THE LARGEST UNCERTAINTY NOW IN DETERMINING ITS OVERALL MASS BALANCE (E.G., RIGNOT ET AL., 2008). AT LEAST PART OF THIS RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED FOR THC EXTREME CASE OF 'WIND GLAZE' MAPPING IN EAST ANTARCTICA (LE., AREAS OF WINDSWEPT TIM WITH NEAR-ZERO ACCUMULATION; SCAMBOS ET AL., 2006;2008) WE PROPOSE TO USE RADAR DATA FROM THE RECENTLY COMPLETED NORWAY-US TRAVERSE, THE USITASE TRAVERSES, AND LOCAL STUDIES OF MEGADUNE REGIONS (FAHNESTOCK ET AI., 2000) IN COMBINATION WITH ICESAT AND CRYOSAT-2 ELEVATION DATA AUGMENTED BY MODIS IMAGES. WE WILL ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS IN BOTH EAST AND WEST ANTARCTICA BETWEEN THE SLOPE FIELD, WIND DIRECTION AND SPEED, AND ACCUMULATION RATE. WE WILL THEN INVESTIGATE THE REGIONAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RADAR-WAVELENGTH BACKSCATTER, SLOPE FIELD, SURFACE GRAIN SIZE, ROUGHNESS, AND POINT ACCUMULATION DATA; AND EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY OF EXTENDING THE ALONG-PROFILE ACCUMULATION RELATIONSHIP TO CATCHMENT-WIDE OR EVEN ICE-SHEET WIDE ACCUMULATION MAPPINGS.

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• $88,630 - Wednesday the 26th of August 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  SOLAR FLARES ARE THE MOST POWERFUL TRANSIENT EVENTS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM, ACCELERATING ELECTRONS TO HUNDREDS OF MEV AND IONS TO TENS OF GEV, AND HEATING PLASMA TO TENS OF MEGAKELVIN (MK). WHILE IT IS WIDELY BELIEVED THAT FLARES RESULT FROM THE RELEASE OF MAGNETIC ENERGY DURING MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN THE SOLAR CORONA, THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES THAT DRIVE THIS RELEASE AND ITS CONVERSION INTO THE KINETIC ENERGIES OF ACCELERATED PARTICLES AND HOT PLASMA REMAIN POORLY UNDERSTOOD. ONE SIGNIFICANT LIMITATION HAS BEEN THE LACK OF COMPLETE INFORMATION ON THE HOT, THERMAL AND ACCELERATED, NON-THERMAL ELECTRON POPULATIONS DURING THE FLARE. FOR EXAMPLE, CHARACTERIZING THE NON-THERMAL ELECTRON SPECTRUM FROM THE OBSERVED PHOTON SPECTRUM REQUIRES PRECISE KNOWLEDGE OF THE THERMAL EMISSION, BUT IT HAS PROVEN DIFFICULT TO DERIVE A WELL-CONSTRAINED TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN FLARES USING PREVIOUS-GENERATION EUV AND X-RAY SPECTROMETERS AND IMAGERS DUE TO THEIR LIMITED SPECTRAL, SPATIAL, AND/OR TEMPORAL COVERAGE. MOREOVER, WHILE IT IS GENERALLY ACCEPTED THAT THERMAL PLASMA IN FLARES RESULTS FROM EVAPORATION OF CHROMOSPHERIC MATERIAL HEATED BY COLLISIONS FROM DOWNWARD-ACCELERATED ELECTRONS, RECENT OBSERVATIONS SUGGEST THAT IN THE MOST INTENSE (GOES X-CLASS) FLARES, THE HOTTEST PLASMA -- WHICH EXCEEDS ~30-50 MK -- IS HEATED DIRECTLY IN THE CORONA VIA A DIFFERENT (BUT AS-YET UNDETERMINED) PHYSICAL MECHANISM. THE RECENT LAUNCH OF THE EVE INSTRUMENT ON SDO PROVIDES EXCITING NEW CAPABILITIES FOR ANALYZING THERMAL FLARE PLASMA. EVE OBSERVES NUMEROUS EUV EMISSION LINES FROM VARIOUS IONS FORMED BETWEEN ~2 AND ~25 MK, WITH A 10-SEC CADENCE OVER ITS ENTIRE 50-1050 RANGE. IN COMPLEMENT, THE RHESSI SPACECRAFT OBSERVES THE X-RAY EMISSION BOTH FROM>~10 MK THERMAL PLASMAS AND FROM NON-THERMAL ELECTRONS. WE PROPOSE TO USE DATA FROM BOTH INSTRUMENTS, AND EUV IMAGES FROM SDO/AIA, TO, FOR THE FIRST TIME, FULLY CHARACTERIZE THE FLARE PLASMA TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION FROM ~2 TO>~50 MK, ALONG WITH THE NON-THERMAL ELECTRON POPULATION, AND THUS TO DERIVE A UNIFIED, SELF-CONSISTENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACCELERATED ELECTRONS AND HOT PLASMA AT VARYING TEMPERATURES. IN PARTICULAR, WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: 1. HOW DOES THE THERMAL PLASMA EVOLVE DURING A FLARE? IN PARTICULAR, HOW DOES THE HOTTEST PLASMA EVOLVE IN COMPARISON WITH THE COOLERPLASMA, AND HOW DOES THE SHAPE OF THE TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION CORRELATE WITH THE NON-THERMAL ELECTRON SPECTRUM? 2. WHAT IS THE LOW-ENERGY CUTOFF OF THE ACCELERATED ELECTRONS, GIVEN THE TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION, AND WHAT ADDITIONAL CONSTRAINTS DO THE ENERGETICS OF THE THERMAL PLASMA PROVIDE? 3. USING MULTI-THREAD HYDRODYNAMIC MODELS, HOW DOES THE THERMAL RESPONSE OF THE AMBIENT SOLAR ATMOSPHERE TO ACCELERATED ELECTRONS COMPARE WITH OBSERVATIONS, AND WHAT CONSTRAINTS CAN WE DERIVE FOR THE NON-THERMAL ELECTRON SPECTRUM VIA FORWARD-MODELING? THE PROPOSED WORK DIRECTLY PERTAINS TO NASA'S 2011 STRATEGIC PLAN, STRATEGIC GOAL 2, OUTCOME 2.2: "UNDERSTAND THE SUN AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH EARTH AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM," SPECIFICALLY "UNDERSTANDING OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL PROCESSES OF THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT" THROUGH THE STUDY OF FLARES. WITH RESPECT TO NASA'S 2010 SCIENCE PLAN, THIS WORK ADDRESSES THE SCIENCE QUESTION "WHAT CAUSES THE SUN TO VARY?" AND THE SCIENCE AREA OBJECTIVE 1 FOR HELIOPHYSICS. FINALLY, THE UPCOMING NRC HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY REPORT IS EXPECTED TO STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING IMPULSIVE ENERGY RELEASE AND PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN FLARES.

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• $85,000 - Monday the 26th of June 2017
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE ATMOSPHERES OF THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS VENUS, EARTH, AND MARS HAVE EVOLVED OVER THE HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM FROM A SIMILAR SET OF INITIAL CONDITIONS USING A COMMON SET OF PHYSICAL PROCESSES. YET THEIR CURRENT STATES ARE VASTLY DIFFERENT. THE REASON FOR THE DIFFERENCES IS RELATIVELY CLEAR: AN ATMOSPHERE RESULTS FROM SOURCE AND LOSS PROCESSES ACTING ON IT OVER TIME, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE PROCESSES VARIES FROM PLANET TO PLANET. THEREFORE, IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND AN ATMOSPHERE IT IS NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT PROCESSES THAT HAVE AFFECTED IT, AND THEIR RELATIVE IMPORTANCE AS A FUNCTION OF TIME. IMPACTS HAVE OCCURRED ON THE PLANETS SINCE THEY FIRST FORMED, AND ARE REGARDED AS BOTH A SOURCE AND SINK OF ATMOSPHERIC VOLATILES. COMETS ARE THOUGHT TO HAVE DELIVERED EARTH S WATER FROM THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM. AND GIANT IMPACTS ARE THOUGHT TO HAVE `SPLASHED VOLATILES OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE [MELOSH AND VICKERY, 1989]. THEORETICAL CALCULATIONS OF `ATMOSPHERIC EROSION BY IMPACTS SUGGEST THAT LARGE IMPACTS COULD HAVE REMOVED AS MUCH AS 90% OF THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE [BRAIN AND JAKOSKY, 1998]. OTHER MODELS SUGGEST THAT THE NET EFFECT OF IMPACTS ON THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE IS LESS CLEAR WHEN SMALLER IMPACTORS ARE INCLUDED, AS WELL AS CONSIDERATION OF THE VOLATILES DELIVERED BY IMPACTORS [MANNING ET AL., 2006; PHAM ET AL., 2009]. TWO IMPORTANT METHODOLOGIES CAN BE USED TO VERIFY AND CONSTRAIN THE CALCULATIONS FOR MARS OUTLINED ABOVE. FIRST, LARGE FLUID SIMULATIONS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED [NEWMAN ET AL., 1999, HAMANO AND ABE, 2005; SVETSOV, 2007; PLESKO ET AL., 2008] THAT CAN BE USED TO VERIFY AND EXPAND UPON OLDER THEORETICAL RESULTS SO FAR WITHOUT CLEAR CONSENSUS. SECOND, THE SIMULATED CONSEQUENCES OF LARGE IMPACTS AT MARS CAN BE CONTRASTED WITH THOSE FOR OTHER TERRESTRIAL PLANETS. OUR TEAM PROPOSES TO APPLY BOTH OF THESE IDEAS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ROLE THAT IMPACTS PLAYED IN MODIFYING TERRESTRIAL ATMOSPHERIC ABUNDANCES.

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• $8,333 - Saturday the 1st of December 2012
  Bureau Of Reclamation
  BOULDER CITY REGIONAL OFFICE
  IGF::CT::IGF CRITICAL FUNCTION 2 MONTHS OF RIVERWARE SOFTWARE SUPPORT

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