Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

NASA/ GSFC is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (GSFC) is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Distributed Active Archive Center ( DAAC). The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received. The current DAAC for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is located at The University of Alaska Fairbanks' (UAF's) Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), which is a part of the UAF Geophysical Institute (GI). The SAR DAAC is required to maintain the capabilities to acquire, ingest, process, archive and distribute a broad variety of space-borne and airborne radar data and science data products, including synthetic aperture radar data, as assigned by NASA, necessary for Earth science research and of use to the broader science community and educational institutions. These capabilities include development, operations, maintenance, and sustaining engineering of interfaces to external systems providing data products, new data and metadata ingest pipelines and archive storage, specialized tools and services, data distribution capabilities and all requisite documentation and guides. This DAAC is responsible for managing SAR data products and services from NASA missions and instruments such as, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Radar, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) UAVSAR Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) and Interferometric SAR (InSAR), NASA Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C), JPL Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR), JPL Seasat and the future NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) L-Band Radar and Satellite Needs Working Group products (such as Surface Displacement). Additionally, the DAAC manages and distributes SAR products from international partners such as European Space Agency Sentinel 1A/B, JAXA Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS 1/2) PALSAR, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Radarsat-1, Japanese Earth Resources Satellite JERS-1 and European Space Agency ERS-1 and ERS-2. The SAR DAAC currently maintains an archive of approximately 14 petabytes of SAR data and related products and is expected to grow at a rate of nearly 30 petabytes per year during the life of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission (expected launch Jan 2023). The majority of this data is ingested and archived in commercial cloud from which the SAR DAAC makes these data and products available for discovery, search, on-demand processing and transformations, and download by the Earth science community. This wide variety of SAR data products supports NASA-sponsored scientific applications including oceanography, geology, glaciology, hydrology, ecology, studies of polar processes, ice motion and kinematics, geo-hazards, crustal dynamics research and biomass mapping. This DAAC will support its user community by providing specialized SAR data and information services, assisting in locating and manipulating related and ancillary data, developing new techniques and tools for the NASA SAR user community and serving as a point of contact for the development and implementation of new value-added products and services. NASA is interested in awarding a contract for acquiring, processing, storing and distributing Synthetic Aperture Radar data and products with a group that would work cooperatively with the ESDIS Project, the owner of the NASA Earth Science data collections, and the other Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs); the current contract is a cost, no-fee type. The period of performance is five years starting in July 2023. The functions of this facility would include, but are not limited to (see the Statement of Work): Ingest, archive and distribute Earth Science data designated for the EOSDIS Synthetic Aperture Radar Distributed Active Archive Center utilizing the Earthdata Cloud (EDC) system. The Earthdata Cloud exists on the NASA managed framework using Amazon Web services. Data is provided to the DAAC by NASA and international partners and the DAAC must work closely with data providers. The DAAC will use software tools to ingest and distribute data from the Earthdata Cloud. The Earthdata Cloud consists a managed platform for Security-as-a-Service, a common framework for data ingest, archival and distribution, a framework for integrated backup storage, capabilities for cloud egress monitoring and control, a framework for cloud-based services, and the Common Metadata Repository (CMR) for cataloging all data products metadata, location and associated services and documentation. Provide reusable software systems to support the findability, accessibility, and interoperability with other data and systems. These software systems will provide services for the SAR community and will be available to all DAACs and will work in the Earthdata Cloud Framework. Provide tools, services, user interfaces, web infrastructure components for the SAR community that work in the system environment of Earthdata Cloud. As part of operations and integration of new systems, security patch installations, and CI/CD processes, the contractor must utilize established DevOps lifecycle and participate in the Scaled Agile Framework used by the ESDIS project. Provide operations support for validation of science data products and ancillary data acquired/provided from various sources. This includes careful management of metadata throughout the systems, especially towards ensuring accuracy of metadata. Provide documentation and user support on SAR data and services. Keep abreast of uses of the data. Ensure data is archived and served in a way that facilitates its use. Recommend to NASA data formats or additional data products and services that might better serve community needs. Provide leadership in the SAR community on data formats, strategic services, data interoperability, data usability, and data capabilities. Coordinate with other organizations, agencies, DAACs, NASA Centers, and institutions in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of this contract. This includes developing and maintaining interfaces with other EOSDIS organizational elements, other agencies with which EOSDIS must cooperate, NASA’s international partners with whom EOSDIS will be interoperable, and a broad variety of international organizations and working groups. Constraints: For an understanding of the scope of the maintenance and operation of this DAAC, respondents should review the provided references. These documents serve as a backdrop against which respondents must frame and pose the appropriate advanced information technology topics for further consideration: Reference and URL Alaska Satellite Facility Website - https://www.asf.alaska.edu ESDIS Project Website - https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/esdis-project EOSDIS Earthdata Website - https://earthdata.nasa.gov/ EOSDIS Earthdata Cloud - https://earthdata.nasa.gov/esds/cloud & https://earthdata.nasa.gov/eosdis/cloud-evolution NASA Earth Science Data Systems, Open Data, Service and Software Policies - https://earthdata.nasa.gov/collaborate/open-data-services-and-software Directions to Responders: No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Interested offerors/vendors having the required specialized capabilities to meet the above requirement should submit a capability statement of seven (7) pages or less indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort described herein, which conforms to Annex 1, "Template for Synthetic Aperture Radar DAAC Continuing Development, Operations and Maintenance Submittal". The capability statement should clearly address their level of knowledge in Synthetic Aperture Radar data products, their interactions with this user community, and their capabilities for continuing development, operations and maintenance of large, multi-petabyte-scale operational science data archives and distribution systems. Comments and suggestions for improving the Synthetic Aperture Radar DAAC are always encouraged and solicited. Please advise if the requirement is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. A commercial item is defined in FAR 2.101. Technical questions should be submitted in writing to: Mr. Drew Kittel at [email protected] with cc to Pavi Tumbapura at [email protected] Procurement related questions should be directed to: Pavi Tumbapura, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center at [email protected] Additionally, in support of the Executive Order (EO) 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, NASA is seeking to advance equity or remove barriers for members of underserved communities related to this requirement. As defined in the EO, Underserved Communities refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, as exemplified by the list in the preceding definition of "equity." Equity means the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. NASA seeks input in the following areas: 1. To support the requirements identified in this request for information (RFI)/sources sought notification, what barriers or opportunities exist to engage subject matter experts from industry and academia and how can those barriers be overcome? How can underserved communities be leveraged? 2. To support the requirements identified in this RFI, what barriers or opportunities exist to partner with subcontractors that employ members of underserved communities, as defined above? 3. What other recommendations would you make to enhance diversity and inclusion? 4. What should be considered to encourage full participation and contribution of organizations and individuals (e.g., outreach efforts and innovative partnerships) in performance of this requirement? All responses shall be submitted electronically via email to Pavi Tumbapura at pavithra [email protected] no later than April 07, 2022; 8:00am ET. Please reference Synthetic Aperture Radar DAAC in any response. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Schedule: Deadline for Submission: April 07, 2022; 8:00am ET Responses may be sent via electronic mail (in either Microsoft Word or ADOBE PDF format) to Pavi Tumbapura at [email protected].