It cannot. It is a traditional "big data" problem that involves a large amount of data collection, merging, and analysis.
Blockchain's distributed ledger offers no value-add here. Making it just a glorified Merkle Tree, but that doesn't even seem like the most appropriate way to handle this type of data set.
(Nit: A blockchain is not a Merkle tree.)
If you remove the distributed ledge, that's how blocks are stored.
The contents of the blocks of the Bitcoin blockchain (and other cryptocurrency blockchains) happen to be Merkle trees (of transactions, in Bitcoin's case). Blockchains as a data structure are unrelated to Merkle trees.
I legitimately don't understand what distinction you're trying to make here. Typically a "nit" clarifies something, but you're just muddying the discussion for seemingly no real benefit.
It is a basically set of Merkle trees, each with a header.
That's the joke, but unfortunately the drafters of this RFP seem to not be in on it.