SAIC to provide technical services support to the National Data Buoy Center

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, July 11, 2005

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced recently a contract award to operate and maintain buoys and coastal stations, collectively called the Marine Observation Network (MON), for the National Weather Service's (NWS) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). This single-award task order contract includes a five-year base period and five award-term option years with a potential cumulative value of $500 million.

As the NDBC support contractor, SAIC will continue to provide uninterrupted delivery of real-time environmental data to the operational elements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) for weather forecasting and warning and for assessing climate variability. SAIC will provide engineering, operational, logistical and information technology support to operate and maintain the Marine Observation Network, NOAA's focal point for coastal data buoy and associated meteorological and environmental monitoring.

"With the nation's emphasis on the ocean, NDBC sits in an enviable position--that of an organization poised for growth and with a mechanism to do just that. We sold this contract, with its $500 million ceiling, to the Department of Commerce as a NOAA asset to be used broadly in support of the President's Ocean Action Plan and more specifically associated with the Integrated Ocean Observing System. The SAIC/NDBC team is in this together," said Dr. Paul Moersdorf, director of NWS' NDBC.

The MON is an integrated ocean observation and information delivery system with buoy data acquisition platforms located in U.S. coastal waters, as well as the offshore waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes. The MON currently maintains 97 moored buoys, including their sensors, transmitters and receivers.

"SAIC will facilitate NDBC's mission to support the President's U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and its Ocean U.S. assessments and plans," said Trey Smith, president of SAIC's Research, Development, Test and Evaluation Group. "Over the length of this contract SAIC will support NDBC's role in the establishment of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) by enhancing the data management system, increasing the number and quality of measures with the infusion of new technology into the MON, and significantly increasing the size of the buoy network."

SAIC's support to NDBC involves the maintenance of 152 gathering stations that collect real-time data on atmosphere, ocean, wind, rainfall, temperature and salinity that collect real-time atmospheric (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and winds) and ocean (sea surface temperature, currents, and waves) data. SAIC also provides maintenance for NDBC's recently acquired Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) station network of three stations off the coast of Alaska, two off the Pacific Northwest, and one in the equatorial Pacific, dedicated to detecting tsunamis. SAIC was instrumental in transitioning the DART network from NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). With SAIC's support, NDBC is currently transitioning the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean array of 55 moored buoys from OAR. Most recently, SAIC completed deployment of seven new buoys, specifically located to collect data in hurricane prone areas of the Caribbean, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico, just in time to provide data on the season's first tropical storm.

From science to solutions, SAIC engineers and scientists solve complex technical problems in national security, homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. With annual revenues of $7.2 billion, SAIC is the largest United States' employee- owned research and engineering company, with more than 42,000 employees at offices in more than 150 cities worldwide.