US Ecological Observatory to Construct Test-Bed Facility Near Boulder, Colorado

September 15, 2008

US ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY CONSTRUCTS TEST-BED FACILITY NEAR BOULDER, COLORADO

Senior scientists at the Boulder-based National Ecological Observatory
Network (NEON) are testing environmental sensors and
data-handling technology eight miles north of Boulder, Colorado, at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Table Mountain Test Bed Facility.

NEON is a continental-scale ecological observation platform for
understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land-use
change, and invasive species on ecology. The Observatory will consist
of distributed sensor networks, coordinated airborne observations, and
experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record
ecological data for at least 30 years. NEON will act as a collective,
virtual sensor of the entire continent, including research sites in
Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

The design and data requirements of NEON have emerged from a decade of
discussion and planning by the ecological research community. The
Observatory is expected to gather and disseminate an enormous amount
of data: approximately 600 billion measurements per year.

NEON scientists and cyberinfrastructure experts working at Table
Mountain have deployed instruments and are integrating several types of
data, communications, and acquisition rates. They have erected a tower with
instruments measuring atmospheric chemistry and sensor arrays to
measure soil chemistry and water. They are also testing a distributed
network and a data acquisition system for the tower-based
measurements.

The Table Mountain Test Facility is an excellent location for the NEON
test-bed. It offers security, power, and internet access. It also
features representative soils and atmospheric flow, making it a model
for a suite of NEON measurements that will be recorded at sites
throughout the network. The facility is owned by the Department of
Commerce and maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration/Global Monitoring Division (NOAA/GMD).

NEON has formed a partnership at Table Mountain with the NOAA
Surface Radiation Group (SURFRAD), which is charged with field
calibration of all of the surface measurements of the UN World
Meteorological Organization. NEON is planning to use the NOAA facility
for its field surface calibration and to perform data integration
tasks at the newly renovated SURFRAD laboratory.

The National Ecological Observatory Network recently received $24
million from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) for organizational
and project management support to complete its construction-ready
design and execution plan and its cyberinfrastructure design. A series
of NSF reviews of NEON are scheduled for 2009.

Long-term NEON data will provide early warning of biological natural
hazards and feed a new generation of advanced forecast models.
Enhanced ecological forecasting will improve decision-making and
management of environmental changes due to a warming climate, changing
land use, and increased biological invasions. NEON data will help
society better understand natural hazards such as drought and
wildfire, changes in agriculture cycles, and the spread of
environmental pests and emerging diseases in human and animal
populations.

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