The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is pleased to announce that the 2016 flight campaign of the Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) is now underway. Survey flights are scheduled through October 2016 and will cover 25 terrestrial field sites and 17 aquatic field sites in nine of NEON’s twenty ecoclimatic domains (see Schedule below).
Taking advantage of the opportunity to acquire simultaneous field and airborne observations at a given site, NEON invites interested researchers to plan ground-based research activities that coincide with scheduled AOP flights. If you would like to do so, please email NEON’s AOP team at: [email protected] (Please note that access to field sites must be coordinated directly with site hosts, and access to NEON plots is restricted.) How NEON conducts airborne surveys NEON currently deploys two payloads equipped to carry out airborne remote sensing surveys, one fully operational and a second scheduled to transition to operations in 2017. Each AOP payload consists of three key instruments: An imaging spectrometer capable of generating hyperspectral imagery of the underlying terrain; A waveform light detection and ranging (lidar) instrument intended to measure the height and density of vegetation; and, A high-resolution digital camera to capture orthophotography of the site These instruments are mounted in a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft operating at a nominal altitude of 1000 m above ground level (AGL) and a typical speed of 100 knots, enabling meter-scale spectroscopy, decimeter- scale photography, and ~4 points-per-meter square discrete and waveform lidar measurements at a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to retrieve vegetation vertical structure and biogeochemical properties from measured reflectance spectra. AOP surveys a minimum of 100 km2 at each of NEON’s existing terrestrial sites, optimized to capture the spatial heterogeneity of ecological features in the landscape. The surveyed areas include the NEON tower airshed and distributed long-term sampling plots; where possible, AOP flights cover the watershed of each terrestrial and aquatic site. AOP intends to survey all NEON sites during their period of “peak greenness,” defined as the range of dates where the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) measured from MODIS is at least 90% of the typical maximum at each site. Surveys conducted during peak greenness minimize signal uncertainty caused by seasonal variations in plant phenology and ensure spatial and temporal consistency in data products across multiple years. To minimize interference from clouds and shadows, AOP will attempt to acquire data when cloud coverage is under 10% and the sun is at least 40° above the horizon. Data produced by the NEON Airborne Observation Platform NEON estimates that the 2016 AOP survey flights will generate 26 Tb of “Level 0” (i.e., “raw”) data that will yield approximately 100 Tb in corresponding Level 1 through Level 3 data products. NEON produces the following products from AOP data: LiDAR derived: - Unclassified point cloud (LAS format - by flightline) - Classified Point Cloud (LAZ format – 1 km2 tiles) - LiDAR boundary (KML) - DTM mosaic (1 m resolution, GTiff format, 1 km2 tile) - DSM mosaic (1 m resolution, GTiff format, 1 km2 tile) - Terrain slope mosaic (1 m resolution, GTiff format, 1 km2 tile) - Terrain aspect mosaic (1 m resolution, GTiff format, 1 km2 tile) - Canopy Height Model mosaic (1 m resolution, GTiff format, 1 km2 tile) - Waveform LiDAR (NEON binary format / Pulsewaves, by flight line) Camera derived: - Orthorectified high resolution digital photos (10 cm resolution, GTiff - by photo) - Orthorectified high resolution digital photo mosaic (10 cm resolution, GTiff, 1 km2 tile) Spectrometer derived: - Directional surface reflectance (H5 format, 1 m resolution, by flightline) - Vegetation Indices (GTiff format, 1 m resolution, by flightline) - Water Indices (GTiff format, 1 m resolution, by flightline) Depending on the total size of data requested, NEON will deliver data products either via download from NEON’s AOP data repository or by shipping requestors an external hard drive. To learn more about current data product availability and how to request AOP data, please visit: http://www.neonscience.org/data-resources/get-data/airborne-data NEON 2016 Flight Campaign Schedule Domain Site (Terrestrial / Aquatic) Target Flight Dates 11 LBJ Grasslands Apr 20 - Apr 28 11 Pringle Creek Apr 20 - Apr 28 11 Klemme Range Research Station Apr 20 - Apr 28 11 South Pond at KRRS Apr 20 - Apr 28 08 Talladega National Forest Apr 30 - May 21 08 Mayfield Creek Apr 30 - May 21 08 Lenoir Landing Apr 30 - May 21 08 Lower Tombigbee River Apr 30 - May 21 08 Dead Lake Apr 30 - May 21 08 Black Warrior River Apr 30 - May 21 07 Oak Ridge National Laboratory May 30 - Jun 24 07 Walker Branch Aquatic May 30 - Jun 24 07 Great Smoky Mountains NP May 30 - Jun 24 07 LeConte Creek May 30 - Jun 24 09 Woodworth / Prairie Pothole Jun 26 - Jul 9 09 Dakota Coteau Field School Jun 26 - Jul 9 09 N. Great Plains Research Fac. Jun 26 - Jul 9 06 Konza Prairie Biological Station Jul 11 - Jul 17 06 McFiffett Creek Jul 11 - Jul 17 06 University of Kansas Field Stn. Jul 11 - Jul 17 02 Smithsonian Cons. Bio. Inst. Jul 19 - Aug 9 02 Posey Creek Jul 19 - Aug 9 02 Smithsonian Env. Res. Ctr Jul 19 - Aug 9. 02 Blandy Experimental Farm Jul 19 - Aug 9 07 Mountain Lake Biological Station Jul 19 - Aug 9 01 Harvard Forest Aug 18 - Aug 30 01 Hop Brook Aug 18 - Aug 30 01 Bartlett Experimental Forest Aug 18 - Aug 30 05 UNDERC Sep 1 - Sep 14 05 Crampton Lake Sep 1 - Sep 14 05 Steigerwaldt Land Services Sep 1 - Sep 14 05 Treehaven Sep 1 - Sep 14 05 Chequamegon-Nicolet Nat. Forest Sep 1 - Sep 14 03 Jones Ecological Research Center Sep 16 - Sep 21 03 Ordway-Swisher Biological Stn. Sep 23 - Oct 3 03 Suggs Lake / Barco Lake Sep 23 - Oct 3 03 Disney Wilderness Preserve Sep 23 - Oct 3 For the geographic locations of these field sites, explore the complete NEON field site map at http://www.neonscience.org/science-design/field- sites. You can also download KMLs that show the anticipated flight coverage for each site at http://www.neonscience.org/science-design/field- sites/maps-spatial-data.
