The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale ecological observation platform designed to collect and disseminate data that contributes to understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land use change, and invasive species on ecology. NEON will collect in-situ and airborne data over 81 sites across the US, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) group within the NEON project operates a payload suite that includes a waveform/discrete LiDAR, imaging spectrometer (NIS) and high resolution RGB camera. Data collected by the AOP are intended to support observations from complementary observation systems within NEON, and provide a bridge that supports spatial and temporal scaling between localized point scale observations, regional data sets, and continental scale satellite observations.
We present here an overview of the NEON AOP capabilities and data products, one example of a specific application of the data.
Results/Conclusions
The 2012 to 2017 drought in California resulted in the death of numerous trees at Soaproot Saddle in the Sierra National Forest, CA, a NEON site. These trees represent a hazard to NEON researchers, recreational users, and others as they can topple and result in injury or death.
We have used data from the lidar, spectrometer, and camera to objectively identify and map the dead trees. From the lidar canopy height model, we identified the trees. From the spectrometer vegetative indices, we differentiated between the live and dead vegetation. We used the camera images tune model parameters for best results. Data from 2013 and 2017 was used to differentiate between old and newly dead trees. The results are being used by NEON on-site staff to mitigate their risk in conducting field operations.