NASA Awards Sun-Sky Scanning Sun Photometers for the AERONET Project

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has awarded a contract for Sun-Sky Scanning Sun Photometers to CIMEL Electronique of Paris, France to support the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET).

This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with an estimated total ordering value of $10M. The five-year period of performance begins on September 28 and includes one six-month option. The work will be performed at the contractor's facilities in Paris, France.

The Contractor will provide several models of the CIMEL 318 family of Sun and Sky-Scanning Spectral Radiometers and necessary parts for the repair, maintenance, and upgrade of the sun photometers; tracking robot; and advanced control box. These sun photometers monitor aerosol optical properties and provide uniform database for long term characterization of aerosol optical properties within NASA's Global Climate Change program. 

The AERONET project is a federation of ground-based remote sensing aerosol networks established by NASA and PHOTONS (PHOtométrie pour le Traitement Opérationnel de Normalisation Satellitaire; Univ. of Lille 1, CNES, and CNRS-INSU) and is greatly expanded by networks and collaborators from national agencies, institutes, universities, individual scientists, and partners. For more than 25 years, the project has provided long-term, continuous and readily accessible public domain database of aerosol optical, microphysical and radiative properties for aerosol research and characterization, validation of satellite retrievals, and synergism with other databases. The network imposes standardization of instruments, calibration, processing and distribution.

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SOURCE NASA