May 2025
NEON'S NARRATIVE
Welcoming thoughts from NEON leadership
Welcoming thoughts from NEON leadership
Greetings,
Welcome to this month’s edition of the NEON e-newsletter. Each issue will spotlight the power and potential of the NEON program as a national scientific asset, as we focus on expanding NEON’s reach and relevance across the network.
NEON’s work is directly aligned with national science priorities – supporting data-driven decision making and biodiversity monitoring. This month, as we gear up to the start of the new field season, we’re scaling our impact to provide even broader, more accessible data that serves researchers, educators, and policymakers alike. The recent launch of our Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) flight schedule, which showcases where NEON’s aircraft remote sensing systems will fly, is an example of how we’re working to achieve this.
NEON is here for everyone. Whether you're a long-time collaborator or just discovering what NEON has to offer, we invite you to explore our data, connect with our team, and share your insights. Together, we can drive science forward.
Sincerely,
Paula Mabee, Chief Scientist and Observatory Director at NEON, Battelle
Welcome to this month’s edition of the NEON e-newsletter. Each issue will spotlight the power and potential of the NEON program as a national scientific asset, as we focus on expanding NEON’s reach and relevance across the network.
NEON’s work is directly aligned with national science priorities – supporting data-driven decision making and biodiversity monitoring. This month, as we gear up to the start of the new field season, we’re scaling our impact to provide even broader, more accessible data that serves researchers, educators, and policymakers alike. The recent launch of our Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) flight schedule, which showcases where NEON’s aircraft remote sensing systems will fly, is an example of how we’re working to achieve this.
NEON is here for everyone. Whether you're a long-time collaborator or just discovering what NEON has to offer, we invite you to explore our data, connect with our team, and share your insights. Together, we can drive science forward.
Sincerely,
Paula Mabee, Chief Scientist and Observatory Director at NEON, Battelle
Olivia Chapman is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, focusing on mammal diversity. Chapman majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan and chose mammalogy due to the hands-on nature of the field.
Chapman handling a hedgehog in the Gobi Desert
Three‐Dimensional Habitat Structure Drives Avian Functional and Trait Diversity Across North America
- Using LiDAR data from NEON, researchers quantified three-dimensional habitat structures across diverse North American ecosystems.
- Using NEON’s aquatic system datasets, researchers examined the changes in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous content that suspended particulate matter contributes to rivers and streams. Their research connected biotic and abiotic factors that influence carbon and nutrient quantities in river networks.
Explore how NEON data, samples, and infrastructure is being used in new research
May 31: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
NEON Convergence Summit 2025
Join NEON staff, NEON Ambassadors, and interdisciplinary researchers in Boulder, CO, Oct. 15–17, 2025, to explore innovative uses of NEON data and co-develop impactful products – apply by May 31.
May 31:CALL FOR INPUT
Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure Survey
The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is studying the technical skills and training opportunities needed to leverage the wealth of data from research infrastructures and networks. If you are an environmental science researcher, take the survey by May 31 to contribute to the dataset.
NEON Convergence Summit 2025
Join NEON staff, NEON Ambassadors, and interdisciplinary researchers in Boulder, CO, Oct. 15–17, 2025, to explore innovative uses of NEON data and co-develop impactful products – apply by May 31.
May 31:CALL FOR INPUT
Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure Survey
The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is studying the technical skills and training opportunities needed to leverage the wealth of data from research infrastructures and networks. If you are an environmental science researcher, take the survey by May 31 to contribute to the dataset.
To view additional events, visit NEON’s event calendar.
• Western Washington University News, April 16, 2025
• Virginia Tech News, April 10, 2025
• NEON Senior Field Ecologist, Instrumentation, Fairbanks, AK
• NEON Field Ecologist, Instrumentation, Oak Ridge, TN
NEON is still hiring seasonal field technicians and interns across many of our Domains.
Data Skills Tutorial
Principal Component Analysis of AOP Hyperspectral Data in GEE
Behind the Data: How NEON Maintains a Nationwide Sensor Network
Principal Component Analysis of AOP Hyperspectral Data in GEE
- Visit NEON’s learning hub to explore how to apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to NEON's high-dimensional hyperspectral reflectance data within Google Earth Engine. By transforming spectrally correlated data into uncorrelated principal components, PCA demonstrates how it can reduce data dimensionality while preserving essential information, facilitating more efficient analysis of complex ecological datasets.
Behind the Data: How NEON Maintains a Nationwide Sensor Network
- Discover how NEON operates and maintains 81 ecological monitoring sites across the U.S., using advanced sensors to collect high-frequency environmental data. This video highlights the team's focus on data quality and reliability through real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Track weekly Observatory status updates.
Are you using NEON in your research?
Stay on top of NEON Data Notifications for relevant data products.
Visit theLearning Hub for new data skills tutorials and code packages to help work with NEON data.
Subscribe to Flight Reports from NEON’s Airborne Observation Platform (AOP).
Follow Natural History and Observation Projects on the NEON Biorepository Data Portal.
Visit theLearning Hub for new data skills tutorials and code packages to help work with NEON data.
Subscribe to Flight Reports from NEON’s Airborne Observation Platform (AOP).
Follow Natural History and Observation Projects on the NEON Biorepository Data Portal.
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