Opportunity for Cloud Properties Retrieval Algorithm Development: Request for Interest Opened

 
Published: 10 February 2016
Deployed in pairs, the new scanning cloud radars share a common pedestal and can scan 180 degrees in every direction. To see the radars in motion, view this video.
The ARM Facility is seeking a scientific consultant to develop an operational cloud property algorithm, using data from ARM facilities and instruments like these scanning cloud radars.

The ARM Climate Research Facility, through the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), is looking for a science consultant with relevant industry knowledge to develop an operational algorithm for retrieving vertically resolved cloud properties using existing ground-based remote sensing instruments at ARM facilities, including both fixed and mobile sites. This development effort will support ARM’s mission to provide observational data sets to improve understanding and representation of atmospheric processes in climate and Earth system models and will apply to observations located in varying climatic regimes.

Vertically resolved quantities of cloud phase determination (i.e., ice, liquid, mixed), ice and liquid water content, effective radius of liquid water drops, effective size of ice crystals, and quantified uncertainty estimates on each retrieved quantity must be included. Other desirable quantities include number concentration, visible extinction coefficient, and precipitation rate and/or water content of precipitation. Data quality reporting, output files, and metadata information must follow ARM Data File Standards. Retrieval algorithms must be vetted by the community and accepted or published in a peer-reviewed journal. The algorithm should be written in a programming language that can interface with the ARM Data Integrator (ADI) and pass the quality assurance requirements listed in the full technical specification. A technical report will be expected to document the algorithm.

Information is being collected through February 23 to prepare a formal request for proposal this spring. Please submit the following with your email of interest to PNNL by 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST), by Tuesday, February 23, 2016:

  1. Interest in submitting a proposal.
  2. Business name, full address, and point of contact information, including name, phone, and email.
  3. Feedback on the general provisions applied to this effort. Would you accept these terms or what terms would you alternatively propose? What are the alternative terms?
  4. Feedback on the technical specifications.
  5. Any questions.
  6. Your government defined small business status, if any, for NAICS code 541511 (< $27.5 million is considered a small business).
    • Small or large, and if woman owned, veteran owned, service disabled, HUBZone, or service disabled veteran owned.

Send to Ken Blaine or Kim Massie. You will be contacted when the request for proposal is issued.