The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $63,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  STUDIES OF RECONNECTION IN THE SOLAR WIND HAVE REVEALED SOME SURPRISING RESULTS THAT ARE POSING SERIOUS CHALLENGES TO CURRENT THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE RECONNECTION PROCESS. OUR PROPOSED WORK WILL FOCUS ON ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT SCIENCE QUESTION OF WHY DO RECONNECTION EVENTS IN THE SOLAR WIND EXHIBIT SUCH DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT PROPERTIES COMPARED TO PRESENT UNDERSTANDING OF RECONNECTION OR EVENTS OBSERVED IN OTHER ENVIRONMENTS, SUCH AS THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE OR IN THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE? TO THIS END, THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS 3-YEAR PROPOSAL IS TO CONDUCT STATE-OF-THE-ART KINETIC SIMULATIONS FOR PARAMETER REGIMES RELEVANT TO THE OBSERVED SOLAR WIND RECONNECTION EVENTS. THE SIMULATION RESULTS WILL BE COMPARED AGAINST COMBINED PLASMA AND MAGNETIC FIELD DATA FROM NASA'S ACE AND WIND MISSIONS. AS SUCH, OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH IS HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE STRATEGIC GOALS OF NASA S OVERALL MISSION, ITS STRATEGIC SUB GOAL 3B, AND ITS RESEARCH 'BJECTIVE 3B.1 AND IS APPROPRIATE FOR THE SOLAR AND HELIOSPHERIC SR&T. WE EMPHASIZE THAT THE LIMIT OF LOW MAGNETIC SHEAR IS ONE OF THE LEAST STUDIED AND POORLY UNDERSTOOD REGIMES IN COLLISIONLESS RECONNECTION. THIS LACK OF THEORY HAS MADE IT DIFFICULT TO INTERPRET THE OBSERVATIONS. THE PROPOSED SIMULATIONS WILL ADDRESS THIS ISSUE AND PROVIDE A FRAMEWORK FOR INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA. OUR PRELIMINARY RESULTS HAVE ALREADY PROVIDED INSIGHT AND POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS OF SOLAR WIND RECONNECTION EVENTS. OUR PROPOSED WORK IS STRUCTURED TO DEVELOP THESE IDEAS FURTHER AND PROVIDE DIAGNOSTICS THAT CAN TEST THEIR VIABILITY IN THE SOLAR WIND DATA. FINALLY, THE PARTICULAR SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOLAR WIND MEASUREMENTS IS THAT THEY OPEN UP A NEW, AND IN MANY WAYS UNPARALLELED, LABORATORY FOR STUDYING THE LARGE-SCALE PROPERTIES OF RECONNECTION IN SPACE PLASMAS. FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF RECONNECTION WILL NOT ONLY YIELD UNDERSTANDING ABOUT ITS PROPERTIES IN THE SOLAR WIND, BUT WILL HAVE BROAD IMPLICATIONS REGARDING RECONNECTION AS IT OCCURS IN THE MAGNETOSPHERE, IN THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE AND IN OTHER PLASMA ENVIRONMENTS.

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• $106,114 - Monday the 20th of April 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IS THE DOMINANT MECHANISM FOR THE SOLAR WIND MASS AND ENERGY ENTRY INTO THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE. CONSIDERABLE EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE IN THE LAST HALF-CENTURY TO STUDY RECONNECTION USING A COMBINATION OF OBSERVATIONAL, THEORETICAL, AND COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS. ACCORDING TO THE SCIENCE PLAN FOR NASA'S SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE 2007-2016 AND THE RECOMMENDED ROADMAP FOR HELIOPHYSICS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2005-2035, STUDYING RECONNECTION IS ONE OF NASA'S TOP SCIENCE PRIORITIES. WHILE UNDERSTANDING OF BOTH THE BASIC PHYSICS OF THIS PHENOMENON AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE OVERALL DYNAMICS OF THE MAGNETOSPHERE HAS ADVANCED GREATLY OVER THE YEARS, A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF KEY QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED. IN THE COLLISIONLESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IS A COMPLEX MULTI-SCALE PROCESS, WHICH IS TYPICALLY DRIVEN BY MACROSCOPIC DYNAMICS, BUT CRUCIALLY DEPENDS ON MICROSCOPIC PHYSICS ON THE ELECTRON KINETIC SCALES. THIS INHERENT SEPARATION OF SCALES PRESENTS GREAT CHALLENGES FOR BOTH OBSERVATIONS AND THEORY. FOR EXAMPLE, 3D GLOBAL MODELING OF THE MAGNETOSPHERE USING FIRST PRINCIPLE KINETIC MODELS REMAINS OUT OF REACH. THUS THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS NECESSARILY FOCUS ON EITHER SMALL SCALES, CORRECTLY DESCRIBING THE PHYSICS OF RECONNECTION IN HIGHLY IDEALIZED SMALL SYSTEMS, OR ON MACROSCOPIC EVOLUTION WITHOUT REGARD FOR THE MICROPHYSICS OF RECONNECTION (E.G., RELYING ON NUMERICAL OR IMPOSED RESISTIVITY IN GLOBAL MHD CODES). INDEED, ALL OF THE CURRENT GLOBAL MODELS EMPLOYING MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS (MHD), HALL MHD, AND HYBRID (ELECTRON FLUID, KINETIC IONS) FORMALISM LACK THE PROPER KINETIC ELECTRON PHYSICS TO FULLY CAPTURE THE PHYSICS OF RECONNECTION. AT THE SAME TIME, MANY OUTSTANDING PRACTICAL QUESTIONS SUCH AS WHERE RECONNECTION IS INITIATED, CONDITIONS FOR WHEN IT IS QUASI-STEADY AS OPPOSED TO TIME-DEPENDENT, ASSOCIATED PARTICLE ACCELERATION, AND THE STRUCTURE OF DIFFUSION LAYER ARE TIED TO THE KINETIC ELECTRON PHYSICS. WE PROPOSE TO STUDY RECONNECTION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A REALISTIC GEOMETRY MIMICKING THE MAGNETOSPHERE USING ESSENTIALLY FIRST PRINCIPLE 2D SIMULATIONS THAT CORRECTLY CAPTURE A SUBSET OF THE RELEVANT PROCESSES. WHILE THIS STUDY WILL HAVE ITS LIMITATIONS, IT WILL REPRESENT A MAJOR MILESTONE IN THE EFFORT TO PERFORM REALISTIC GLOBAL SIMULATIONS OF THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE AND WILL SIGNIFICANTLY ADVANCE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE ON RECONNECTION. THE PROPOSED SIMULATIONS HAVE BECOME POSSIBLE DUE TO OUR ADVANCES IN HIGHLY SCALABLE FULLY KINETIC PARTICLE-IN-CELL CODES AND THE ADVENT OF PETASCALE COMPUTING. WHILE 3D GLOBAL PIC SIMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN IMPRACTICAL IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE, RECENT ADVANCES HAVE ALSO ENABLED 3D LOCAL PIC SIMULATIONS OF RECONNECTION THAT WILL BE USED TO COMPLEMENT THE PROPOSED 2D GLOBAL SIMULATIONS SUCCESSFUL 2D GLOBAL FULLY KINETIC SIMULATIONS WILL HAVE IMMEDIATE SCIENTIFIC IMPACT: 1) THIS STUDY WILL LEAPFROG THE MODELING OF RECONNECTION FROM IDEALIZED HIGHLY SYMMETRIC EQUILIBRIA (E.G., HARRIS) AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS TO REALISTIC AND HIGHLY COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS RELEVANT TO THE EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE 2) COMPARISON WITH EQUIVALENT GLOBAL HYBRID SIMULATIONS WOULD ENABLE THE FIRST DIRECT ASSESSMENT OF THE VARIOUS RESISTIVITY MODELS AGAINST A FULLY KINETIC MODEL IN A GLOBAL SETTING. THIS CAN LEAD TO BETTER MODELS OF RECONNECTION IN GLOBAL HYBRID AND MHD SIMULATIONS, WHICH IS A LONG SOUGHT AFTER GOAL IN GLOBAL MODELING. 3) THE SIMULATIONS WILL PROVIDE IMPORTANT SUPPORT TO EXISTING AND PLANNED NASA MISSIONS STUDYING RECONNECTION SINCE DETAILED STRUCTURE OF THE RECONNECTION REGIONS AND FULL PARTICLE DATA WILL BE AVAILABLE TO COMPARE AGAINST OBSERVATIONS.

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