2026 SAR Contract Statement of Work

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Department of Commerce (DOC)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Weather Service (NWS)
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)
Ocean & Tsunami Center (OTC)
U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC)

SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) DATA

1.0 BACKGROUND

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The United States National Ice Center (USNIC) mission is to, in collaboration with its global partners, empower mariners and Naval forces operating across a global area of authority with the highest quality as well as timely snow, sea- and lake-ice products and forecasts. USNIC safeguards life and property at sea, defends access and commerce, and further enhances Naval maneuverability and superiority. The USNIC achieves this through consistent analysis of present ice conditions, forecasting the future state of ice, and by responding to requests for tactical scale information for those operating within ice infested conditions.​ ​
The USNIC is a fully integrated multi-agency center composed of the United States Navy (USN), United States Coast Guard (USCG), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA portion of the USNIC is aligned as the Ice Operations Division (IOD) under the Ocean & Tsunami Center (OTC), a national center for environmental prediction of the National Weather Service (NWS), a line office of NOAA under the Department of Commerce. The USNIC mission aligns closely with the OTC mission of providing timely and accurate marine forecasts, outlooks, and warnings for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. OTC’s team of meteorologists and physical scientists, including those at IOD, collectively apply their years of cumulative specialized experience in the maritime environment to provide the world’s best marine forecasts and critical decision support services for mariners, utilizing weather and ocean models, numerous satellite platforms, and in situ observations. The alignment of USNIC’s IOD under the OTC umbrella has led to a more comprehensive approach for marine hazard products and services across the maritime polar environment as well as the Great Lakes and coastal waters where ice can be found.​ ​
Traditionally, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery has been the primary imagery type to monitor ice conditions in the higher latitudes as SAR provides high resolution imagery capable of penetrating perpetual cloud cover and the limited illumination of the polar winter. Though the