Research and development services and related consultancy services

Tender description

ECMWF as the Entrusted Entity for implementing the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) will issue an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for delivery of Essential Climate Variable (ECV) products derived from observations. C3S aims to provide its users with reliable access to high-quality, comprehensive and up-to-date information about observed changes in the climate. This shall be achieved by providing global data on the majority of ECVs described in the 2016 update to the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Implementation Plan (available at http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/). C3S activities (C3S_312a Lots 1 — 9) are currently in place that address a first subset of those ECVs; the new ITT to be issued will address the remainder. The ITT will provide detailed technical requirements for products associated with the following GCOS ECVs: For the atmosphere: — Surface radiation budget, — Water vapour, — Cloud properties, — Earth radiation budget, — Other long-lived greenhouse gases. For the ocean: — Inorganic carbon, — Ocean colour. For land: — Lakes, — Ice sheets and ice shelves, — Permafrost, — Land cover, — Fire. Bidders will be encouraged to take into account the requirements and capabilities of other Copernicus Services, and to take full advantage of existing operational capabilities in Europe (e.g. the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facilities) and elsewhere (e.g. the NOAA/ESRL Global Monitoring Division). The contract may be divided into Lots addressing subsets of the ECVs listed above. The detailed requirements pertaining to each Lot will be specified in the Contract Notice and ITT when published. The duration of each Lot will be for up to 45 months.