Airborne Observation Platform (AOP)
Airborne remote sensing surveys are conducted over NEON field sites during peak greenness and provide quantitative information on land cover and changes to ecological structure and chemistry, including the presence and effects of invasive species. The surveys are supported by the NEON Airborne Observation Platform (AOP), a synergistic collection of earth observation instruments installed into a light aircraft designed to collect high-resolution remote sensing data at low altitude. The intention of the AOP is to collect regional-scale landscape information at the NEON field sites. The AOP maps areas where NEON's observational and instrumented sampling is occurring and allows relationships to be drawn between NEON's detailed in-situ observations to the broader environmental and ecological conditions.
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Payload Sensors
The AOP consists of three complete and comparable instrument payloads, plus a GPS antenna and receiver and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to provide high-accuracy positioning and orientation of the aircraft. Typically, two of the payloads are dedicated to collections of the NEON field sites while the third is dedicated to NEON's Research Support services which support externally driven research.
Discrete and Full-Waveform Lidar
Provides three-dimensional structural information of the landscape
Imaging Spectrometer
Allows discrimination of land cover types and chemical content of vegetation
High-Resolution Digital Camera
Provides spatially accurate and detailed contextual information
The sensors for each payload are calibrated and validated annually through a series of rigorous lab observations and in-flight testing and verification procedures. The AOP sensors are mounted in Twin Otter aircrafts which can accommodate the high volume and weight of the AOP sensors and fly at low altitudes and speeds. All sensors are rigidly co-mounted in the aircraft which provides high relative spatial consistency between observations from individual sensors. The sensor payload remains installed in the aircraft for the duration of the flight season which typically occurs between March and September to correspond to peak greenness across the continent. The AOP collects data at a subset of the NEON sites each year, surveying a flight box that is a minimum of 100 km2 around each site. The current year's schedule is typically released in January. Current and previous schedules can be found below.
AOP Design, Scheduling, and Reports
Flight Box Design
Airborne survey boundaries (flight boxes) at each NEON site are designed to produce consistent datasets at nominal 1 m resolution from the NEON imaging spectrometer and lidar.
Flight Schedules & Coverage
NEON performs surveys when the dominant plant species at a site are at or near peak foliar growth ("greenness") so that estimates of leaf area, foliar biomass, gas exchange, etc. are accurate and comparable over time.
Daily Flight Reports
Flight reports are published daily and archived for each payload.
Data Products
AOP Data Products are separated into categories of Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 (L1, L2, L3). L1 represents the least processed data products with additional processing steps undertaken to transition the L1 data to L2 and L3. Broadly, the L1 and L2 products are provided by individual aircraft flight line, while L3 products are provided in 1 km by 1 km tiles. Generally, the data volume for L1 products is the highest and decreases for L2 and L3 products. Details of the different products within each Level can be found in the individual webpages for each sensor. To find AOP data products, go to the Data Portal and click on the Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) checkbox in the left sidebar under Science Team.
Spanning scales: The airborne spatial and temporal sampling design of the National Ecological Observatory Network. Musinsky, J., Goulden, T., Wirth, G., Leisso, N., Krause, K., Haynes, M., & Chapman, C. (2022). Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13(9), 1866–1884. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13942