The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $36,980 - Friday the 14th of September 2012
  National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration
  WESTERN FIELD DELEGATES OAR
  PURCHASE ANALYSIS LEADING TO A MANUSCRIPT.

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• $30,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE SEASONALLY DRY TROPICAL FORESTS OF THE SOUTHERN YUCAT N ARE THE LARGEST REMAINING FOREST TRACTS IN MEXICO YET ARE THREATENED BY DISTURBANCES SUCH AS DROUGHT, WILDFIRE, AND ARE POTENTIALLY ADVERSELY AFFECTED BY CLIMATE TRENDS AND VARIABILITY. INCREASES IN THE INTENSITY AND SPATIAL EXTENT OF DRY SEASON DECIDUOUSNESS IN THE REGION MAY IMPACT BIOSPHERE-ATMOSPHERE INTERACTIONS BY DECREASING ECOSYSTEM CARBON STORAGE AND INCREASING THE QUANTITY OF AEROSOLS EMITTED BY BURNING. THIS RESEARCH UTILIZES GROUND AND REMOTELY-SENSED TIME SERIES TO EXPLORE THE CLIMATIC DRIVERS OF DECIDUOUSNESS IN THE SOUTHERN YUCAT N, AND TO MODEL THE EFFECTS OF DECIDUOUSNESS ON BIOSPHERE-ATMOSPHERE CARBON TRANSFER AND AEROSOL EMISSIONS FROM BURNING. A) SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF DECIDUOUSNESS WILL BE CHARACTERIZED USING NASA QUIKSCAT BACKSCATTER DATA. QUIKSCAT-DERIVED DECIDUOUSNESS MAPS WILL BE PRODUCED OVER A 2000-2009 TIME SERIES AND COMPARED TO EXISTING MODERATE RESOLUTION SPECTRORADIOMETER (MODIS) ENHANCED VEGETATION INDEX-BASED MAPS FROM THE SAME TEMPORAL EXTENT USING SPATIAL LINEAR REGRESSION AND A CROSS-TABULATION MATRIX. RADAR DATA ARE EXPECTED TO REFINE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF DECIDUOUSNESS, ESPECIALLY DURING THE CLOUDY WET SEASON. FINAL MAPS OF DECIDUOUS EXTENT AND INTENSITY WILL ALLOW FIELD SITES TO BE SELECTED ALONG A DECIDUOUSNESS GRADIENT SO AS TO VALIDATE REMOTELY SENSED OBSERVATIONS. B) AFTER PRODUCTION OF TIME SERIES THAT CHARACTERIZE THE EXTENT AND INTENSITY OF DECIDUOUSNESS, SPATIAL REGRESSION WILL BE USED TO TEST FOR THE STRENGTH OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRECIPITATION EVENTS AND DECIDUOUSNESS, AND DETECT THE TIME SCALES AT WHICH THIS RELATIONSHIP IS STRONGEST. PRIOR TO REGRESSION ANALYSIS, DATA INTEGRATION OF RAIN GAUGE MEASUREMENTS WITH THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST MONITORING MISSION (TRMM) REMOTELY SENSED OBSERVATIONS OF PRECIPITATION WILL BE PERFORMED TO PRODUCE A SPATIALLY AND TEMPORALLY FINER PRECIPITATION TIME SERIES FOR ANALYSIS. THIS ANALYSIS WILL REVEAL THE STRENGTH AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRECIPITATION AND DECIDUOUSNESS, AND WILL INDICATE POTENTIAL REGIONAL CLIMATE FEEDBACKS. C) BASED ON SAMPLE SITES SELECTED BASED ON QUIKSCAT-BASED DECIDUOUSNESS MAPS (OBJECTIVE A), SOIL AND LEAF LITTER WILL BE SAMPLED FOR USE IN EXPERIMENTS TO MEASURE THE EFFECT OF THE INTRODUCTION OF LABILE C VIA LEAF LITTER ON SOIL C RESPIRATION. FINDINGS WILL SUGGEST WHETHER DECIDUOUS LEAF LOSS LEADS TO ACCUMULATION OF C IN THE SOIL, OR WHETHER ITS PRESENCE INCREASES THE RATE OF RESPIRATION TO ULTIMATELY TRIGGER A NEGATIVE SOIL C BALANCE IN THE SOUTHERN YUCAT N REGION. D) THE MODIS AQUA ACTIVE FIRE PRODUCT WILL BE USED TO FLAG SOUTHERN YUCAT N FIRES IN THE YEARS 2000-2011, AND MONTHLY TIME SERIES WILL BE CREATED TO SHOW FOREST FIRES OCCURRING IN A DECIDUOUS AND NON-DECIDUOUS FORESTS (FROM OBJECTIVE A). SPATIAL REGRESSION WILL BE USED TO TEST IF THE BURNING OF DECIDUOUS FORESTS RESULTS IN SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF AEROSOL EMISSIONS THAN BURNING OF NON-DECIDUOUS FORESTS. INCREASED ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL CONTENT LEADS TO DRIER CONDITIONS, WHICH POTENTIALLY INCREASES THE EXTENT AND INTENSITY OF DECIDUOUSNESS (OBJECTIVE B). IF COMBUSTION OF ACCUMULATED LEAF LITTER IN DECIDUOUS FORESTS IS OBSERVED TO CORRESPOND WITH SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER AMOUNTS OF AEROSOLS EMITTED FROM BURNING, THE DRIER CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM INCREASED ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL CONTENT MAY LEAD TO INCREASED INTENSITY OF DECIDUOUSNESS, POTENTIALLY CREATING A REGIONAL CLIMATE FEEDBACK LOOP. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH FURTHERS NASA S OBJECTIVES OF EXPLORING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN EARTH SYSTEM COMPONENTS AND OF UNDERSTANDING THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGE BY LEVERAGING MULTIPLE DATA PRODUCTS AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS TO CHARACTERIZE THE EXTENT AND INTENSITY OF DECIDUOUSNESS, UNDERSTAND ITS CLIMATIC DRIVERS, AND PREDICT ITS IMPLICATIONS ON SOIL C STORAGE AND AEROSOL EMISSIONS IN SEASONALLY DRY TROPICAL FORESTS.

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• $30,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE MAGNITUDE, FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY OF RECENT BARK BEETLE OUTBREAKS IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA HAS BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO WARMER WINTER TEMPERATURES AND CHANGING PRECIPITATION PATTERNS AS A RESULT OF CLIMATE CHANGE. THE EXTENSIVE TREE MORTALITY RESULTING FROM SUCH OUTBREAKS IS EXPECTED TO STRONGLY ALTER ENERGY AND WATER BALANCES, AND IN TURN MAY SERVE AS A SIGNIFICANT CLIMATE FORCING AGENT. HOWEVER, DESPITE THE CURRENT EXTENT AND SEVERITY OF SUCH OUTBREAKS, ENERGY AND WATER CONSEQUENCES REMAIN LARGELY UN-DOCUMENTED. REMOTE SENSING PROVIDES A CRITICAL TOOL FOR CHARACTERIZING AND QUANTIFYING CHANGES IN ENERGY AND WATER DYNAMICS AT THE LANDSCAPE SCALE. WE PROPOSE TO USE REMOTE SENSING TO INVESTIGATE, 1) IF LANDSAT THEMATIC MAPPER (TM) AND UP-SCALING TECHNIQUES CAN BE UTILIZED TO MAP OUTBREAK LOCATION AND SEVERITY, 2) THE ALBEDO CONSEQUENCES OF OUTBREAKS, AND 3) THE EVAPOTRANSPIRATION FLUX CONSEQUENCES OF OUTBREAKS. OUR STUDY AREA CONSISTS OF CURRENTLY INFESTED AREAS OF CONIFEROUS FORESTS IN THE SOUTH-CENTRAL ROCKY MOUNTAINS. OUTBREAK LOCATIONS WILL BE IDENTIFIED USING THE TASSELED CAP LINEAR TRANSFORMATION ON LANDSAT-7 ETM+ SCENES, WHILE OUTBREAK SEVERITY WILL BE CATEGORIZED BY UTILIZING THE STRENGTH OF THE SPECTRAL RESPONSE AT THE LANDSAT-7 ETM+ SCALE, AS WELL AS UP-SCALING TECHNIQUES. COMPARISONS OF ALBEDO AND EVAPOTRANSPIRATION FLUXES BETWEEN INFESTED AND NON-INFESTED SITES WILL BE STRUCTURED WITH THE AIM OF UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF 1) SEASONAL VARIATION, 2) TIME SINCE DISTURBANCE, AND 3) DISTURBANCE SEVERITY. ALBEDO COMPARISONS WILL RELY ON THE MODIS ALBEDO PRODUCT. EVAPOTRANSPIRATION FLUX COMPARISONS WILL RELY ON AN ALGORITHM THAT EMPLOYS MULTI-TEMPORAL MODIS DATA TO CALCULATE EVAPOTRANSPIRATION BASED ON THE SUM OF TRANSPIRATION AND SOIL EVAPORATION. THIS RESEARCH IS NOT ONLY TIMELY, BUT WILL DIRECTLY ASSIST NASA IN DEVELOPING AND IMPROVING APPLICATIONS FOR SATELLITE DATA, AS WELL AS ADVANCE NASA S GOAL OF UNDERSTANDING THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGE FOR WATER AND ENERGY CYCLES.

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• $30,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  SNOW-COVERED AREAS AND GLACIERS HAVE LONG BEEN RECOGNIZED AS THE BEST NATURAL AND SENSITIVE INDICATORS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. SOME OF THE CLEAREST EVIDENCE, SUCH AS THE RETREAT OF GLACIERS, COMES FROM MID-LATITUDE ALPINE REGIONS. OBSERVATION- AND MODEL-BASED STUDIES HAVE CONFIRMED SUBSTANTIAL ALTERATIONS IN THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE OF MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS IN SNOWMELT DOMINATED REGIONS DUE TO REGIONAL WARMING. THE HINDU KUSH-HIMALAYAN (HKH) REGION, KNOWN AS THE 'WATER TOWERS OF ASIA', EPITOMIZES ONE OF SUCH CRITICAL REGIONS WHERE CRYOSPHERIC PROCESSES ARE CLOSELY COUPLED TO THE SEASONAL AND ANNUAL PRECIPITATION AND RUNOFF. THIS REGION HOLDS THE LARGEST MASS OF ICE OUTSIDE THE POLAR REGIONS AND SUPPLIES FRESHWATER TO THE MAJOR SOUTH ASIAN WATERSHEDS SUCH AS THE INDUS, GANGES, AND BRAHMAPUTRA. DESPITE ITS REGIONAL IMPORTANCE, THERE IS UNCERTAINTY ASSOCIATED WITH THE RATES AND MAGNITUDE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON SNOW COVER AND SNOWMELT HYDROLOGY OWING TO UNAVAILABILITY OF DATA WITHIN THIS REGION. RECENT CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING UNCERTAINTY IN HIMALAYAN MELTING FORECASTS HIGHLIGHT THE NEED TO UNCOVER THESE RESEARCH GAPS. LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY OF WATER RESOURCES REQUIRES AN UNDERSTANDING OF SNOWMELT HYDROLOGY AND AN ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY TO THE CRYOSPHERIC AND HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH DIRECTLY RESPONDS TO NASA'S OBJECTIVES OF UNDERSTANDING CHANGING EARTH'S CLIMATE SYSTEM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS. THIS RESEARCH SEEKS TO STUDY CRYOSPHERIC MELT PROCESSES, EFFECTS OF REDUCED SNOW COVER AND GLACIERS ON RUNOFF USING A HYDROLOGICAL MODEL, AND AREAS SUSCEPTIBLE TO A CHANGING CLIMATOLOGICAL REGIME FROM THE BASIN SCALE TO THE REGIONAL SCALE IN THE HKH REGION. THE LINKAGES BETWEEN THE CRYOSPHERIC AND HYDROLOGIC PROCESSES WILL BE FURTHER ASSESSED UNDER POTENTIAL CLIMATE SCENARIOS USING REGIONAL CLIMATE MODELING. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH ARE: A) TO EXAMINE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF SNOW-MELT DYNAMICS SUCH AS MELT SEASON DURATION AND INTENSITY OVER THE HKH RANGE; B) TO INVESTIGATE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON RUNOFF CHARACTERISTICS IN EASTERN HIMALAYAN SUBBASINS; C) TO MAP AREAS OF SNOW COVER WHICH ARE VULNERABLE TO CONVERSION TO A WARMER, RAINFALL DOMINATED PRECIPITATION REGIME UNDER PROJECTED CLIMATE WARMING; AND D) TO PROVIDE A DETAILED ASSESSMENT OF FUTURE SCENARIOS OF CHANGES IN CLIMATIC VARIABLES THAT AFFECT SNOW-COVERED AND GLACIATED REGIONS IN THE HKH REGION. IN DOING SO, THE STUDY WILL INTEGRATE MULTI-SENSOR REMOTE SENSING DATA (QUICKSCAT AND MODIS PRODUCTS) AND SURFACE BASED MEASUREMENTS (HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL DATA) IN CONJUNCTION WITH PHYSICALLY-BASED HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATE MODELS AS EMPHASIZED BY NASA. THIS RESEARCH PROVIDES A DIRECT CONTRIBUTION TO NASA'S EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE RESEARCH FOCUS ON CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE AND EXEMPLIFIES NASA'S GOALS OF USING REMOTE SENSING TO EXPLORE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS LINKING EARTH S CRYOSPHERE AND HYDROSPHERE TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF SNOW AND ICE IN THE CLIMATE SYSTEM.

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