NOAA Awards 2nd Delivery Order Under Radio Occultation Data Buy II
On Wednesday, April 12, 2023, NOAA awarded a 6-month Delivery Order-2 (DO-2) contract to Space Sciences and Engineering LLC (PlanetiQ) under the Radio Occultation Data Buy II (RODB-2) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.
NOAA will acquire 3,100 radio occultation (RO) profiles per day (Neutral Atmosphere Data only) with an implementation data sharing license #1 (unlimited distribution rights). The data delivery period shall be for 184 days running from Tuesday, July 18, 2023, through Thursday, January 18, 2024.
The fifth and final delivery order (DO-5) of RODB IDIQ-1 is currently in execution and will end on July 18, 2023. Spire Global Subsidiary Inc. was awarded DO-5 and is currently delivering 3,300 profiles per day with an implementation data sharing license #1.
Subsequent Delivery Orders off of the RODB-2 IDIQ contracts will be released throughout the five-year contract period at NOAA’s discretion.
On March 23, 2023, NOAA announced the award of the RODB-2 IDIQ contracts. NOAA awarded two, five-year RODB-2 IDIQ contracts with a total maximum value of $59,312,954 to Space Sciences and Engineering LLC (PlanetiQ) and Spire Global Subsidiary Inc.
On Monday, March 27, 2023, NOAA announced the awards of two RODB-2 Delivery Order 1-Test (DO-1T) contracts to Space Sciences and Engineering LLC (PlanetiQ) and Spire Global Subsidiary Inc. To prepare for a full operational stream of GNSS RO data, NOAA awarded these two DO-1T firms-fixed price delivery orders to Spire and to PlanetiQ for 500 GNSS RO profiles per day for 30 consecutive days; DO-1T commenced on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
Background:
The Commercial Data Program (CDP) includes two lines of effort. The Commercial Weather Data Pilot project includes demonstrations of the quality and impact of commercial data on weather forecast models; the Commercial Data Purchase project supports operational weather forecasting. NOAA first began using commercial RO data in its operational weather forecasts on May 20, 2021.
Through CDP, NOAA continues to implement the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-25), which directs NOAA to obtain commercial weather data from private sector providers following pilot assessments that demonstrate commercial sector readiness. NOAA’s CDP has successfully engaged the commercial sector through a competitive process and has acquired operational satellite data-as-a-service. Commercial RO data constitute an important addition to NOAA’s portfolio of environmental observations, which help improve weather forecasts and reduce risk to the overall observing system.