Maxar to be awarded $7.6 million sole source contract for SecureWatch satellite imagery

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) on behalf of Natural Resources Canada will award Maxar a $7.6 million contract for high-resolution optical web-based satellite Earth observation imagery data products. Notice of the Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) was posted on March 4, 2022 on the PSPC Buy and Sell website. The delivery date is set to begin on March 30, 2022. The sole source contract is "for the purchase of an Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services of SecureWatch Satellite Imagery to access a commercial (off the shelf) high-resolution optical web-based satellite imagery data products owned by MAXAR technologies." The ACAN is part of the government's National Master Standing Offers (NMSOs). According to the notice the "The multiple National Master Standing Offers (NMSOs) for Commercial Satellite Imagery Products or Data (E60SQ-120001/H) is still active. These NMSOs have been used to acquire satellite imagery with a significant coverage of Canada’s landmass; however these NMSOs currently do not provide continuous and direct access to high volume of imagery data." The contract is for one year with "two optional additional periods of one year each." Other suppliers who believe they are qualified to provide the data have until March 21, 2022 to notify PSPC. Statement of Requirement The following is the ANNEX A - Statement of Requirement: 1 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Data Specifications 1.1 Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum CoverageThe Imagery Data must be captured using an Imagery Electromagnetic Spectrum offering a minimum of four (4) multi-spectral bands and a one (1) panchromatic band that cover the visible spectrum around the following wavelength ranges:1) a Blue band, 430450-510..550 nm2) a Green band, 490..530-580..610 nm3) a Red band, 600..660-670..720 nm4) a Near Infrared (NIR) band, 740..850-880..950 nm5) a Panchromatic band, 400..500-650..950 nm The Imagery Data from all spectral bands must be captured in synchronous mode, meaning that all images must be acquired at the same time under the same conditions. 1.2 Ground Sample DistanceThe Ground Sample Distance of the Imagery Data must be less than or equals to 50 centimetres (<= 0.5 m) for the Panchromatic band (5) at the nadir. 1.3 Cloud CoverThe cloud cover percentage must be less than or equals twenty percent (<= 20%). 1.4 Off-Nadir Look AngleThe off-nadir look angle must be less than or equals to 25 degrees. 2 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Product Specifications 2.1 Orthorectified Imagery ProductsThe Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide access to the following two (2) distinct types of Orthorectified Imagery Product:a) a product being unsharpened; andb) a product generated from a pan-sharpening process. 2.2 Spatial ResolutionThe Imagery Products must have a pixel spacing less than or equals to 50 centimetres (<= 0.5 m). The spatial resolution must be available for at least the Panchromatic band (5) for unsharpened products. The spatial resolution must be available for all the Multi-spectral bands (1-4) for Imagery Products obtained as the result of a pan-sharpening process. 2.3 Radiometric ResolutionPixel value in Imagery Products are Spectral radiance in units of W * sr-1 * m-2 * nm-1 or Digital Number (DN) with a radiometric resolution greater than or equals to 14 bits for unsharpened products and a radiometric resolution greater than or equals to 8 bits for pan-sharpened products. 2.4 Absolute Positional (Geometric) AccuracyThe Absolute Horizontal Positional Accuracy inside off-nadir range of +/- 25 must be less or equals to 5.0 metres (CE90) for Mosaic Imagery Products and less or equals to 8.4 metres (CE90) for Strip imagery Products. 2.5 Data FormatThe mandatory Data Format for all Imagery Products is GeoTIFF v.1.1 (http://docs.opengeospatial.org/is/19-008r4/19-008r4.html). 2.6 Data Alignment between Spectral bandsThe Imagery Products from a common Imagery Bundle should be co-registrated. This means that all Multi-Spectral bands should share the same origin, pixel size and shape (width, height). 3 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Archive Catalogue 3.1 Initial Catalogue CoverageThe Imagery Archive Catalogue available through the Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must include Imagery Data acquired since January 1st 2016, covering 98% of the Canadian landmass with compliant Imagery Data (1), including cloud cover restriction. 3.2 Minimal Update RequirementsThe Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide access to new compliant Imagery Data (1) collected over at least 50% of the Canadian landmass on an annual basis. The new collected Imagery Data must be made available in the Imagery Archive Catalogue on a continuous basis.4 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Web Platform (IWP) The Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide an externally hosted Imagery Web Platform (IWP) supporting discovery and allowing access to the Imagery Products. The Imagery Web Platform (IWP) must be an existing commercially available system, which can be configured, if required, but must be fully functional and operational at contract award. The IWP must include the following functionalities: 4.1 Imagery Data SearchThe Imagery Web Platform must allow authenticated user to perform search using non-spatial and spatial criteria. 4.1.1 Non-spatial search criteriaThe Non-spatial search criteria must allow defining all of the following mandatory search filters:a) The list of Satellite/Constellation Sensors (if more than one available);b) The Image acquisition date (single or range);c) The Maximum Cloud Cover percentage; andd) The Maximum Off-nadir Look Angle. 4.1.2 Spatial search criteriaThe Spatial search criteria must allow defining at least one (1) of the following method:a) Bounding box resulting from Pan and Zoom operations from a Map interface including relevant base map informationb) Input of Spatial extent using geographic coordinates (longitude/latitude)c) Drawing of a polygon from a Map interface including relevant base map informationd) Geolocation or gazetteer servicee) Intersection with uploaded geometries (point, line or polygon) in a supported vector format 4.2 Imagery Data Discovery 4.2.1 Search Results Metadata Fields The IWP must present search results including the following mandatory metadata fields:a) Satellite or constellation and Sensor name(s);b) Acquisition Time (UTC) (Begin/End);c) Image Corner Coordinates including upper left, lower left, upper right, lower right expressed in geographical or projected coordinates with the projection name and/or the ability to preview the image footprint on over a base map information or a web imagery visualization service;d) Ground sample distance / Spatial resolution / Pixel spacing;e) Spectral band(s) available, andf) Link to an Image Preview (thumbnail and/or overview) (see Section 4.2.2). 4.2.2 Image OverviewThe IWP must include an Image Overview. The Image Overview represents a reduced resolution of the Image Product that can be displayed in a Web Browser and which is available in image formats supported natively by Web browsers (such as image/png or image/jpg). 4.3 Imagery Product OrderingThe IWP must allow authenticated users to select an Imagery Product to trigger a direct download or a data packaging process. 4.4 Imagery Product DownloadThe IWP must allow authenticated users to transfer the Imagery Product from their secured remote location to the NRCan network. The data transfer must be executed over at least one of the following IETF standards:a) HTTP/HTTPS compliant with IETF RFC1945, which is HTTP/1.0 or IETF RFC2616 (or any superseding RFC), which is HTTP/1.1b) FTP compliant with IETF RFC959, which is the current FTP protocol (or any superseding RFC)