The contract has a maximum length of 10 years with a five-year base period, a three-year option period and a two-year transition option.
According a 2010 proposal released by the NOAA, the contract will be for a weather and climate operational supercomputing system, which is expected to replace the National Weather Service’s current supercomputers located in Camp Springs, Md.
In 2002, NOAA awarded a nine year, $224.4 million contract to IBM to lease one of the company’s supercomputers, which was used to improve weather, flood and climate forecasts.