The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is seeking information on developments in the high-performance computing market to support the agency’s effort to upgrade its Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing Systems.According to a notice posted Aug. 18 on FedBizOpps, the next iteration of WCOSS is intended support the computing needs of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and its external partners.
“Increased computational power is essential for NOAA to meet its strategic goals related to weather, climate, air quality, coastal and ocean resource management, and national commerce support, thereby providing improved service to the public,” the RFI stated.
NOAA said the HPC systems will be used to interchangeably support research and development and operations, the agency says.
The request for proposal is scheduled by the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 and NOAA expects to make a contract award by the fourth quarter.
NOAA estimates that it will allocate $64 million for the first two years, $30 million for the succeeding years until 2023 and $15 million for fiscal 2024.
Responses to the RFI were due Sept. 2.
