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Atmosphere Observing System - Cloud (AOS-Cloud)
Announcement of Opportunity:
Community Announcement April 2024

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has released a special notice on SAM.gov, notice ID NNH24ZDA005L, concerning its intention to solicit investigations for the Earth Science Division’s (ESD) Earth System Observatory focus on the Cloud, Convection, and Precipitation (CCP) Designated Observables as defined by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2017 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space, “Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space”, available at https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24938/thriving-on-our-changing-planet-a-decadal-strategy-for-earth

Current planning aligns with the Fiscal Year 2025 President’s Budget Request that shifts NASA’s acquisition approach for missions in formulation in the Earth System Observatory (ESO) to a “Decouple, Partner, and Compete” strategy. As discussed at the ESD Community Forum, March 13, 2024, instead of a tightly coupled architecture published for the Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) during Phase A formulation, NASA will identify those parts of the Aerosol, and of the CCP Designated Observables, where competition may allow a more informed selection of science approach. For more information on the ESD Community Forum, please visit the landing page https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/esd-community-forum. The current state of planning calls for NASA SMD to release a draft Announcement of Opportunity (AO) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 that will solicit proposals for a PI-led, cost capped mission, called Atmosphere Observing System – Cloud (AOS-Cloud) focusing on the CCP observables.

Investigations solicited through the AOS-Cloud AO will be capped at a combined Phase A-F cost of up to $400M (FY 2026), excluding standard launch services and ESO-level integrated science. Additional details on launch services and the science integration that proposers should assume will be provided by ESO and Aerosol and CCP science integration activities across missions will be provided in the draft AO.

Launch Vehicle costs, procurement, and standard services will be the responsibility of NASA. NASA intends to offer launch vehicle performance capabilities as defined in previous Explorer AOs, as described, for example, in the file entitled “EARTH SYSTEM EXPLORER MEDIUM EXPLORERS (MIDEX) 2023 ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY (AO) LAUNCH SERVICES INFORMATION SUMMARY”, available for download at https://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/2023ESE/pdf_files/ESE_MIDEX_2023_Launch_Services_Inform ation_Summary_5_23_23Update.pdf, as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). The GFE cost will not be included in the cost cap. The cost of mission specific and special launch services is the responsibility of the PI and must be included within the cost cap and support a Launch Readiness Date no later than 2031.

NASA intends to pursue some of the Aerosol and CCP science focused mission objectives as separate projects through directed and partnered contributions. These projects’ contributions are expected to include:

• Multi-Wavelength Lidar in Polar Orbit contributed in most part by Italy.
• Microwave Radiometer and Polarimeter in Polar Orbit.
• Far Infrared Imaging Radiometer in a Polar Orbit contributed by Canada.
• Water Vapor and Aerosol Limb Imagers in a Polar Orbit contributed by Canada.
• Ku-band Doppler Radar in an Inclined Orbit contributed by Japan.
• Tandem Microwave Radiometers in an Inclined Orbit contributed by France.

In addition to the above directed and partnered missions, NASA expects to compete at least one mission, (AOS-Cloud), targeting CCP scientific objectives, as described by this announcement. Some CCP observables were addressed previously in the AOS Mission concept via a cloud profiling Doppler radar from a polar orbit that would have coordinated observations with the other observations listed above. A similar mission concept or other approaches to meeting CCP science objectives will also be considered for this opportunity. Proposers will be invited to include concepts that support coordinated observations (e.g., formation flying) with the other Aerosol and CCP missions expected in the polar orbit. Additional details on the other expected missions will be provided in the draft AO.

The current planning is for the selection process to be done in two steps. In Step 1, NASA anticipates that up to three mission proposals may be selected for nine-month Phase A concept studies. Each concept study may be funded up to $8M in real year dollars. For Step 2, NASA will conduct a detailed review of the Phase A Concept Study Reports (CSRs). As a result of this second evaluation, NASA expects to select at least one radar cloud and convection profiling mission to proceed into Phase B and subsequent mission phases. NASA desires to launch this mission by 2031.

Proposals in response to the AO will be due no fewer than 90 days after its formal release. Participation will be open to all categories of U.S. organizations, including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit organizations, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, NASA Centers, and other Government agencies and non-U.S. organizations with some restrictions.

SMD intends to release the draft AOS-Cloud AO in Quarter 1 of FY 2025 for comment via the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) at https://nspires.nasaprs.com/. At that time, the anticipated schedule for the final AO release through down-selection will be provided.

NASA has not approved the issuance of the AOS-Cloud AO, and this Community Announcement (CA) does not obligate NASA to issue the final AO and solicit proposals. Any costs incurred by prospective investigators in preparing submissions in response to this CA are incurred at the submitter's own risk.

The forthcoming AOS-Cloud draft and final AOs may contain provisions that differ from this preliminary notice, in which case the provisions in the AO will take precedence. AOS-Cloud AO will be based on the Standard PI-led Mission AO Template available on the LaRC Science Office for Mission Assessments (SOMA) Home Page at https://soma.larc.nasa.gov/standardao/sao_templates.html. Proposers should read the Draft Earth Science AOS-Cloud AO carefully when it is released.

Questions or comments about this intention to release a AOS-Cloud AO may be addressed by email to the AOS-Cloud Program Scientists: Hal Maring, Barry Lefer, and Will McCarty at hal.maring@nasa.gov, barry.lefer@nasa.gov, and will.mccarty@nasa.gov using subject line “AOS-Cloud AO Community Announcement.” Send questions/comment no later than August 31, 2024 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Depending on the nature of the question(s), NASA may respond on an individual basis by email or may post Question and Answers at https://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/AOS-Cloud/. Anonymity of persons/institutions who submit questions will be preserved.