The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a long-term ecological observatory focused on collecting and providing open, continental-scale data that characterize and quantify complex and rapidly changing ecological patterns and processes. As part of the broader Observatory design, specific components of the Observatory are available to funded researchers for Principal Investigator-driven studies as part of NEON's Assignable Asset Program. The available Assignable Assets include the Mobile Deployment Platform (MDP), the Sensor Infrastructure (SI), sampling locations or biological samples as part of the Observational Sampling Infrastructure (OSI), and the remote sensing capabilities of the Airborne Observation Platform (AOP). In addition to the infrastructure assets, NEON has deployable field sampling teams near NEON sites to support specimen collection and observations for specific research needs. Researchers can also gain access to the growing collection of plant and animal specimens and soil and water samples that NEON staff have gathered and stored in the NEON Bioarchive for study and analyses.
Results/Conclusions
Mobile Deployment Platform (MDP): NEON offers a suite of these self-contained, mobile arrays of sensors, power systems, and data logging capabilities for capturing atmospheric, soil, and aquatic-based measurements.
Sensor Infrastructure (SI): Includes infrastructure (i.e., towers, power, and communications) for physical instrument systems or arrays for collecting environmental data from automated sensor suites.
Observational Sampling Infrastructure (OSI): Allows researchers access to NEON sampling locations or to biological samples at NEON sites before samples are archived.
Airborne Observation Platform (AOP): Provides a suite of remote sensing instruments mounted into a Twin Otter aircraft for collecting airborne-based data at nearly any site of interest in the U.S.