The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $58,599 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  A NEXT-GENERATION INTEGRATED EARTH SYSTEM ANALYSIS-COUPLING BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE. THE OVERALL GOAL OF THE PROPOSED WORK FOR WHICH THE CONTRACTOR IS A CO-INVESTIGATOR IS A NEXT-GENERATION INTEGRATE EARTH SYSTEM ANALYSIS (IESA), WITH CONSISTENT ANALYSES OF THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE. TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL, THE CONTRACTOR WILL CONTRIBUTE TO UPDATING OF THE DIURNAL WARMING LAYER MODEL IN THE AIR-SEA INTERFACE MODULE OF VERSION 5 OF THE GLOBAL EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM (GEOS-5) MODEL USED BY THE GLOBAL MODELING AND ASSIMILATION OFFICE (GMAO) AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE ASSIMILATION SYSTEM THAT FOCUSES ON SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST). THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ARE TO: CONTRIBUTE TO UPDATING OF THE DIURNAL WARMING LAYER MODEL IN THE GEOS-S INTERFACE, INCLUDING COLLABORATING WITH GMAO SCIENTISTS ON IMPROVEMENTS TO THE MODEL; CONTRIBUTE TO THE ASSIMILATION THROUGH HER EXPERIENCE WITH THE MICROWAVE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST) RETRIEVALS; CONTRIBUTE TO THE OBSERVATION ERROR SPECIFICATION, AND PROVIDE AN EVALUATION OF THE SST ANALYSES GENERATED BY COMPARING WITH OTHER SST PRODUCTS AVAILABLE, INCLUDING THAT FROM RSS. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PARTICIPATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIURNAL LAYER MODEL AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION WITHIN THE GEOS-S COUPLING INTERFACE AND IN THE EVALUATION OF THE RESULTING SST SIMULATIONS AND ANALYSES WITH GMAO SCIENTISTS AND WITH OTHER SCIENTISTS FUNDED UNDER THE PROPOSAL, AS DECIDED BY THE PROPOSAL TEAM. DR THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PARTICIPATE IN REGULARLY SCHEDULED TELECONS TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATIONS, PLANNING OF EXPERIMENTS, AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. CONTRIBUTE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SKIN AND DIURNAL LAYER CONCEPTS FROM FAIRALL ET AL. CONTRIBUTE TO THE DESIGN OF TESTS OF THE PARAMETELIZATIONS OF WAVE IMPACTS IN THE DIURNAL LAYER MODEL. COLLABORATE WITH THE REST OF THE TEAM TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW INTERFACE ON BOTH THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN IN COUPLED SIMULATIONS. COLLABORATE WITH THE REST OF TILE TEAM TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW INTERFACE ON BOTH THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN IN COUPLED ASSIMILATION TESTS. COLLABORATE WITH THE REST OF THE TEAM TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW INTERFACE ON BOTH THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN IN THE FINAL COUPLED ASSIMILATION CONFIGURATION.

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• $41,856 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  A NEXT-GENERATION INTEGRATED EARTH SYSTEM ANALYSIS-COUPLING BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE. THE OVERALL GOAL OF THE PROPOSED WORK FOR WHICH THE CONTRACTOR IS A CO-INVESTIGATOR IS A NEXT-GENERATION INTEGRATE EARTH SYSTEM ANALYSIS (IESA), WITH CONSISTENT ANALYSES OF THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE. TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL, THE CONTRACTOR WILL CONTRIBUTE TO UPDATING OF THE DIURNAL WARMING LAYER MODEL IN THE AIR-SEA INTERFACE MODULE OF VERSION 5 OF THE GLOBAL EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM (GEOS-5) MODEL USED BY THE GLOBAL MODELING AND ASSIMILATION OFFICE (GMAO) AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE ASSIMILATION SYSTEM THAT FOCUSES ON SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST). THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ARE TO: CONTRIBUTE TO UPDATING OF THE DIURNAL WARMING LAYER MODEL IN THE GEOS-S INTERFACE, INCLUDING COLLABORATING WITH GMAO SCIENTISTS ON IMPROVEMENTS TO THE MODEL; CONTRIBUTE TO THE ASSIMILATION THROUGH HER EXPERIENCE WITH THE MICROWAVE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST) RETRIEVALS; CONTRIBUTE TO THE OBSERVATION ERROR SPECIFICATION, AND PROVIDE AN EVALUATION OF THE SST ANALYSES GENERATED BY COMPARING WITH OTHER SST PRODUCTS AVAILABLE, INCLUDING THAT FROM RSS. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PARTICIPATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIURNAL LAYER MODEL AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION WITHIN THE GEOS-S COUPLING INTERFACE AND IN THE EVALUATION OF THE RESULTING SST SIMULATIONS AND ANALYSES WITH GMAO SCIENTISTS AND WITH OTHER SCIENTISTS FUNDED UNDER THE PROPOSAL, AS DECIDED BY THE PROPOSAL TEAM. DR THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PARTICIPATE IN REGULARLY SCHEDULED TELECONS TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATIONS, PLANNING OF EXPERIMENTS, AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. CONTRIBUTE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SKIN AND DIURNAL LAYER CONCEPTS FROM FAIRALL ET AL. CONTRIBUTE TO THE DESIGN OF TESTS OF THE PARAMETELIZATIONS OF WAVE IMPACTS IN THE DIURNAL LAYER MODEL. COLLABORATE WITH THE REST OF THE TEAM TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW INTERFACE ON BOTH THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN IN COUPLED SIMULATIONS. COLLABORATE WITH THE REST OF TILE TEAM TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW INTERFACE ON BOTH THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN IN COUPLED ASSIMILATION TESTS. COLLABORATE WITH THE REST OF THE TEAM TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW INTERFACE ON BOTH THE ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN IN THE FINAL COUPLED ASSIMILATION CONFIGURATION.

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• $410,534 - Monday the 27th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  COMPLETE ERROR CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DISCOVER EARTH SYSTEM DATA RECORDS WE PROPOSE A DETAILED ERROR ANALYSIS OF THE OCEAN PRODUCTS PROVIDED BY THE DISCOVER PROJECT, WHICH IS FUNDED THROUGH NASA MEASURES PROGRAM. THE OCEAN PRODUCTS ALL COME FROM AN ARRAY OF OPERATIONAL AND RESEARCH SATELLITE MICROWAVE (MW) RADIOMETERS. THE PROD-UCTS ARE SURFACE WIND SPEED, COLUMNAR ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR, COLUMNAR CLOUD LIQUID WATER, RAIN RATES AND SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST). IN ADDITION TO PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM INDIVIDUAL SATELLITES, DISCOVER ALSO PRODUCES MERGED, MULTI-INSTRUMENT WIND, VAPOR, CLOUD, RAIN AND SST PRODUCTS AS WELL AS DERIVED HYDROLOGICAL PRODUCTS SUCH AS EVAPORATION. WE WILL PERFORM A COMPREHENSIVE ERROR ANALYSIS THAT CONSIDERS MEASUREMENT NOISE, ALGORITHM SENSITIVITY, GEOPHYSICAL MODEL ACCURACY, AND THE INFLUENCE OF CONTAMINATION PARAMETERS SUCH AS RAIN, LAND, SEA ICE, AND RFI. THE PROJECT WILL HAVE TWO MAIN DELIVERABLES. 1. A PIXEL-BY-PIXEL ERROR ESTIMATE FOR EACH AND EVERY GEOPHYSICAL RETRIEVAL. THESE WILL BE REPORTED TO USERS IN THE FORM OF ADDITIONAL LAYERS IN OUR STANDARD DAILY, 3-DAY AVERAGE, AND MONTHLY PRODUCTS. THESE ESTIMATES WILL PRIMARILY DESCRIBE SHORT-TERM ERRORS. 2. ESTIMATES OF LONG-TERM ERRORS (I.E., DECADAL TREND ERROR BARS) OF EACH OCEAN PRODUCT. THESE LONG-TERM ERROR ESTIMATES WILL BE COMMUNICATED TO THE USERS VIA A WEB-BASED ANNUAL VALIDATION REPORT THE ADDITION OF ERROR INFORMATION TO THE DISCOVER PRODUCTS WILL GREATLY INCREASE THEIR USEFULNESS TO ALL USERS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE AVAILABILITY OF ERROR ESTIMATES WILL ENABLE THE ACCURATE ASSIMILATION OF THE MEASUREMENTS INTO DERIVED PRODUCTS AND THE ASSESSMENT OF THE STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANT OF CONCLUSIONS REACHED WHEN USING THE PRODUCTS IN RESEARCH APPLICATIONS.

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• $296,144 - Wednesday the 16th of May 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  TITLE: IMPROVED VECTOR WIND AND STRESS RETRIEVALS FOR CLIMATE APPLICATIONS AND UNDERSTANDING THE CAPABILITIES AND SYNERGISMS OF THE DFS AND AMSR. THIS INVESTIGATION WILL PROVIDE IMPROVED OCEAN VECTOR WINDS DERIVED FROM A COLLECTION OF US AND EUROPEAN SCATTEROMETERS. THE WINDS RETRIEVED FROM THE VARIOUS SPACECRAFTS WILL BE CAREFULLY INTER-CALIBRATED SO THAT THEY WILL BE SUITABLE FOR CLIMATE RESEARCH. TWO PRODUCTS WILL BE GENERATED: THE VECTOR WIND 10 M ABOVE THE SEA SURFACE (ASSUMING A NEUTRALLY STABLE ATMOSPHERE), AND THE VECTOR STRESS THAT THE WIND EXERTS ON THE OCEAN SURFACE. THE INVESTIGATION WILL ALSO EXAMINE THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES THAT AFFECT C-BAND AND KU-BAND SCATTEROMETER MEASUREMENTS WHEN RAIN IS PRESENT, WITH THE GOAL OF DEVELOPING A RAIN-CORRECTION ALGORITHM FOR THE PROPOSED DUAL-FREQUENCY SCATTEROMETER (DFS) ON GCOM-W2. THE FOUR KEY ELEMENTS OF THIS INVESTIGATION ARE: 1. THE DERIVATION OF AN IMPROVED GEOPHYSICAL MODEL FUNCTION (GMF), WHICH RELATES THE RADAR CROSS SECTION TO THE OCEAN VECTOR WIND, FOCUSING ON IMPROVING WINDS ABOVE 20 M/S, 2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OCEAN SURFACE STRESS GEOPHYSICAL MODEL FUNCTION FOR QUIKSCAT, 3. THE INTEGRATION OF THE DERIVED OCEAN WINDS INTO TO THE CROSS-CALIBRATED MULTI-PLATFORM (CCMP) ASSIMILATION PROJECT AT THE ATLANTIC OCEANOGRAPHIC AND METEOROLOGICAL LABORATORY, 4. THE USAGE OF THE MIDORI-2 SEAWINDS/AMSR SENSOR COMPLEMENT TO STUDY THE CAPABILITIES AND SYNERGISMS OF ACTIVE-PASSIVE MICROWAVE (MW) REMOTE SENSING, WITH A FOCUS ON A RAIN CORRECTION FOR THE SCATTEROMETER DERIVATIONS OF THE GMF WILL BE DONE FOR BOTH THE KU-BAND SCATTEROMETERS FLOWN BY THE US AND THE C-BAND SCATTEROMETERS FLOWN BY THE EUROPEANS. THE KU AND C-BAND GMFS WILL BE DERIVED USING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, THE SAME METHODOLOGY, ANCILLARY DATA, AND CALIBRATION DATA. THIS CONSISTENCY IN THE DERIVATION OF THE TWO GMFS WILL FACILITATE THE CROSS-CALIBRATION OF THE KU AND C-BAND WIND RETRIEVALS. IN ADDITION, FOR THE KU-BAND SCATTEROMETERS, A SPECIAL GMF WILL BE DERIVED THAT IS BASED ON THE WIND SURFACE STRESS RATHER THAN THE WIND AT 10 M ELEVATION. THIS STRESS-BASED GMF WILL BE USED TO DIRECTLY RETRIEVE STRESS RATHER THAN ESTIMATING STRESS FROM THE 10-M WINDS. DUE TO THE LIMITED NUMBER OF HIGH WIND OBSERVATIONS THAT OCCUR IN THE ABSENCE OF RAIN AND THE SCARCITY OF RELIABLE HIGH WIND IN SITU OBSERVATIONS, THE DERIVATION OF THE HIGH WIND (>20 M/S) PART OF THE GMF HAS BEEN PROBLEMATIC. IN THIS INVESTIGATION WE WILL TRY TO REMEDY THIS PROBLEM BY CALIBRATING THE HIGH-WIND PORTION OF THE GMF USING COLLOCATED WIND SPEED RETRIEVALS FROM THE SATELLITE RADIOMETER WINDSAT. THE WINDSAT HIGH-WIND RETRIEVALS HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY CALIBRATED TO THE NOAA HURRICANE RESEARCH DIVISION (HRD) SURFACE WIND ANALYSIS SYSTEM (CALLED H*WIND). THE SEVEN YEARS OF QUIKSCAT-WINDSAT COLLOCATIONS SHOULD PROVIDE A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF RAIN-FREE, HIGH-WIND EVENTS FOR CALIBRATING THE GMF. THE SCATTEROMETER OCEAN VECTOR WINDS PRODUCED BY THIS INVESTIGATION WILL BE INTER-CALIBRATED WITH EXISTING SATELLITE WIND DATASETS, INCLUDING THE WIND SPEED RETRIEVALS FROM MW RADIOMETERS. PRECISE INTER-CALIBRATION IS REQUIRED TO ENSURE THAT THE COMBINED DATASETS ARE SUITABLE FOR CLIMATE RESEARCH. ONCE VERIFIED AND CALIBRATED, THE OCEAN WINDS WILL BE INTEGRATED INTO CCMP, THEREBY PRODUCING A 25+ YEAR TIME SERIES OF 6-HOUR, 1DEGREE LATITUDE-LONGITUDE WIND FIELDS. IF THE DFS IS FUNDED AND OPERATES AS EXPECTED ALONG WITH AMSR-3, GCOM-W2 WILL PROBABLY BECOME THE MOST ADVANCED AND CAPABLE MW WIND AND RAIN MEASURING MISSION YET TO FLY. TO PREPARE FOR DFS, WE WILL USE THE EXISTING MIDORI-2 SEAWINDS/AMSR SENSOR COMPLEMENT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF RAIN ON THE KU AND C-BAND SCATTEROMETER OBSERVATIONS.

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• $257,448 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  THIS PROPOSAL FOCUSES ON IMPROVING THE OCEAN PRODUCTS COMING FROM AMSR-E. THESE PRODUCTS INCLUDE SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE, WIND SPEED, WATER VAPOR, AND CLOUD WATER, ALL OF WHICH ARE CURRENTLY BEING USED FOR MANY APPLICATIONS WORLDWIDE, RANGING FROM OPERATIONAL WEATHER FORECASTING TO CLIMATE STUDIES. CONSIDERING THIS WIDE DATA USAGE, WE PROPOSE TO CAREFULLY MONITOR THE ACCURACY OF THE RETRIEVALS VIA AN ON-GOING VALIDATION ACTIVITY THAT ROUTINELY COMPARES THE OCEAN PRODUCTS WITH IN SITU OBSERVATIONS, OTHER SATELLITE RETRIEVALS, AND OPERATIONAL WEATHER ANALYSES. IN ADDITION, THE CALIBRATION AND POINTING OF THE AMSR-E RADIOMETER SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE VERIFIED PERIODICALLY. DUE TO A DESIGN FLAW, THE AMSR-E HOT LOAD HAS LARGE THERMAL GRADIENTS THAT VARY WITH ORBIT POSITION, AND AS A RESULT A RATHER COMPLEX PROCEDURE IS NEEDED TO ESTIMATE THE EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE OF THE HOT LOAD GIVEN THE THERMISTOR VALUES AND OTHER ANCILLARY DATA. WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE LONG-TERM STABILITY OF THIS HOT-LOAD CORRECTION AND PROPOSE TO PERFORM A SENSOR CALIBRATION ANALYSIS EVERY 6 MONTHS DURING THE FUNDING PERIOD. IN ADDITION TO LOOKING AT THE HOT-LOAD EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE, THESE ANALYSES WILL ALSO VALIDATE GEOLOCATION AND BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURES. EXPERIENCE HAS SHOWN US THAT SENSORS DO AGE AND OTHER UNEXPECTED ISSUES DO OCCUR, SO WE CONSIDER THESE ALGORITHM MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES ESSENTIAL FOR ENSURING THE CONTINUED QUALITY OF THE AMSR-E PRODUCTS. IN ADDITION TO THE ALGORITHM MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES, WE ALSO PROPOSE THREE NEW SCIENCE DATA ANALYSES THAT UTILIZE AMSR-E OBSERVATIONS. PERHAPS THE MOST EXCITING OF THESE IS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A NEW WIND SPEED RETRIEVAL ALGORITHM THAT WILL PROVIDE REASONABLY ACCURATE WINDS IN STORMS AND HURRICANES. THE CURRENT AMSR-E WIND ALGORITHM WAS DESIGNED TO GIVE HIGHLY ACCURATE WIND RETRIEVALS UNDER NON-RAINING CONDITIONS. IT PERFORMS THAT FUNCTION VERY WELL, BUT WHEN THERE IS RAIN (EVEN LIGHT RAIN) THE ALGORITHM S PERFORMANCE DEGRADES SIGNIFICANTLY. WE RECENTLY DEMONSTRATED, USING WINDSAT OBSERVATIONS, THAT A NEW WINDS-THROUGH-RAIN ALGORITHM CAN PROVIDE USABLE WINDS UNDER RAINING CONDITIONS AND IN STORMS AND HURRICANES. WE PROPOSE TO COMBINE THIS WINDS-THROUGH-RAIN ALGORITHM WITH THE CURRENT AMSR-E NO-RAIN ALGORITHM, THEREBY PROVIDING WIND RETRIEVALS OVER THE OCEAN FOR ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS. RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE (RFI) IS BECOMING A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING. ALTHOUGH THE PROBLEM IS WORST OVER LAND, RFI IS SLOWLY CREEPING OUT INTO THE WORLD S OCEANS, MOSTLY DUE TO THE REFLECTION OF TV BROADCASTS OFF THE OCEAN SURFACE. WE HAVE BEEN MONITORING THE INCREASE IN RFI FOR SOME TIME AND ANALYZING HOW IT AFFECTS THE AMSR-E RETRIEVALS. SINCE THE RFI PROBLEM CONTINUES TO WORSEN, WE NOW BELIEVE RFI MITIGATION MEASURES ARE NECESSARY. THEREFORE, WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP CHANNEL-ADAPTIVE RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS THAT CAN AUTOMATICALLY SWITCH CHANNEL SETS TO AVOID RFI AT CERTAIN FREQUENCIES. THIS PROCEDURE WILL PROVIDE THE MEANS TO RETRIEVE OCEAN PRODUCTS IN AREAS CURRENTLY BLACKED OUT DUE TO RFI. ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT ASPECTS OF CLIMATE MODELING IS PROPERLY CHARACTERIZING THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF CLOUDS AND RAIN. IN PARTICULAR, MODELING THE DIURNAL CYCLE IS VERY CHALLENGING. THE DIURNAL VARIABILITY OF CLOUDS AND RAIN IS ALSO IMPORTANT WHEN DOING SATELLITE INTER-COMPARISONS. WE PROPOSE TO DO A MULTI-SENSOR ANALYSIS INVOLVING AMSR-E AND MANY OTHER SATELLITE RADIOMETERS TO CHARACTERIZE THE DIURNAL VARIABILITY OF CLOUDS AND RAIN OVER THE OCEAN.

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• $179,806 - Monday the 27th of February 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF AQUARIUS SCIENCE ALGORITHM

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• $173,237 - Friday the 30th of March 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  STORM INDUCED WAKES: UPPER OCEAN VARIABILITY THE FOCUS OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO UTILIZE GHRSST SSTS FOR RESEARCH INTO THE INFLUENCE OF TROPICAL CYCLONE COLD WAKES AND POLAR LOW WARM WAKES ON CLIMATE. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY DEVELOPING A COMMON STORM-CENTRIC DATA FRAMEWORK, FOR VALIDATION, INTER-COMPARISON, AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES, THAT INCLUDES IN SITU AND SATELLITE DATA AS WELL AS MODEL ANALYSES. THIS WILL PROVIDE A SINGLE SOURCE; SINGLE DATA TYPE FOR STORM RESEARCHERS, WILL IMPROVE OUR DATA DISCOVERY PROCESS, AND EASE THE USE OF THESE DIFFERENT DATA. ALL GLOBAL STORMS FROM MID-1990S ONWARD WILL BE COLLOCATED WITH THESE DATA, PROVIDING FOR THE FIRST TIME, AN IN-DEPTH GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF COLD WAKE CHARACTERISTICS.

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• $150,280 - Tuesday the 15th of May 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS INVESTIGATION IS TO USE THE 24/37 GHZ MICROWAVE RADIOMETER (MVR) THAT IS BEING PROVIDED BY THE SPACE AGENCY OF ARGENTINA (CONAE) TO REDUCE THE ERRORS IN THE AQUARIUS SALINITY RETRIEVALS. THE MWR WILL FLY ON THE SAC-D SPACECRAFT ALONG WITH AQUARIUS. THE MWR OBSERVATIONS WILL BE USED FOR RAIN DETECTION AND CORRECTION (THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE), FOR WIND SPEED ESTIMATION, AND FOR SEA ICE DETECTION. THE PRIMARY COUCERN IS THE EFFECT OF MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN ON THE AQUARIUS 1.4 GHZ OBSERVATIONS. SIMULATIONS HAVE SHOWN THAT 11% OF THE AQNARIUS SALINITY RETRIEVALS WILL HAVE ERROR GREATER THAN 0.1 PSU IF NO RAIN FLAGGING OR CORRECTION PROCEDURE IS IMPLEMENTED. AN ERROR OF 0.1 PSU REPRESENTS HALF OF THE TOTAL ERROR ALLOCATION (MISSION REQUIREMENT IS 0.2 PSU). EXTREME RAIN EVENTS NO MM/HR) WILL PRODUCE A 0.8 PSU ERROR IN THE SALINITY RETRIEVAL. THIS WORK WILL ENTAIL THE IN-ORBIT CALIBRATION OF THE MWR, THE ADAPTION OF EXISTING RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS FOR LIQUID WATER, WIND SPEED, AND SEA ICE, AND RESEARCH INTO THE PROBLEM OF ESTIMATING THE TOTAL ATMOSPHERIC LIQUID WATER WITHIN AN AQUARIUS FOOTPRINT GIVEN THE MWR 24137 GHZ OBSERVATIONS. THE RESULTS OF THIS INVESTIGATION WILL BE IMPLEMENTED AT THE AQUARIUS DATA PROCESSING FACILITY (ADPF) AT THE GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER.

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• $140,129 - Tuesday the 7th of August 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA HEADQUARTERS
  THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS INVESTIGATION IS TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A CLIMATE QUALITY CALIBRATION AND GEOPHYSICAL RETRIEVAL ALGORITHM FOR THE ADVANCED MICROWAVE SCANNING RADIOMETER-2 (AMSR2) CARRIED ON THE JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION AGENCY'S (JAXA) GLOBAL CHANGE OBSERVATION MISSION

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• $132,000 - Friday the 29th of June 2012
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
  SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF AQUARIUS SCIENCE ALGORITHM

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