NEON Assignable Assets Program - Putting NEON Assets to Use for the
Research Community
Abstract
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. 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.