Observatory Status

NEON operations have been impacted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March 2020. This includes a period during which no in-person or on-site work occurred at any NEON sites (23 March through 17 May 2020). NEON resumed operations at select sites on 18 May 2020, with required PPE, temperature checks, and other safety precautions in place for staff and surrounding communities. Since then, NEON Leadership has been continually assessing conditions across the Observatory, resuming operations and reinstating closures where changes in local conditions (i.e., government guidelines, local infection trends, local hospital capacity, and/or local availability of PPE and supplies) dictate.

We will continue to keep you updated here on any changes to Observatory operations due to COVID-19 or other unplanned events, such as wildfire and weather. 

COVID-19 Impacts on 2020 NEON Data Collection and Data Products

STATUS (As of 8 Aug 2022)

Operations Status

Field operations are experiencing ongoing restrictions due to quarantine requirements in northern Alaska (Domain 18: TOOL, TOOK, and OKSR).

Work at some field sites may be suspended due to COVID-19 or other major impacts.

Table 1: NEON field sites that have suspended operations given current safety metrics.

- D12 (Wyoming) field sites (YELL & BLDE) are impacted by closure of Yellowstone National Park following record rainfall and flooding. Power loss affecting the sensor infrastructure at D12 YELL and BLDE has been restored, and sites are streaming. However, the National Park Service expects that the north entrance/northern loop area of Yellowstone National Park (where NEON sites are located) is expected to be closed for some time. Consequently, we expect significant impacts on Observation System sampling to persist during the road closure.

Airborne Operations

Airborne operations (AOP) for the 2022 campaign season will commence in April with two aircraft payload. The 2022 AOP schedule will be conducted according to the schedule below. Data collected in 2021 has been published. For more information, you can find the daily flight reports here.

2022 AOP Deployment Schedule

Not flown in 2022: D03, D08, D09, D10 CPER, D13 NIWO, D17, D19, D20.

Data Products Status

Observation System (OS) Products

• The collection of OS data and samples are dependent on human operators being in the field. Thus, collections at sites where conditions results in restricted access will be impacted. 
• Includes DP IDs: DP1.1XXXX, subset of DP1.2XXXX, DP4.00131, DP4.00132

Airborne Observation Products

• AOP field data collection resumed on 2022/04/27.
• Airborne products are collected according to the schedule above; these data are all dependent on human operators traveling extensively and being in the field.
• Includes DP IDs: DPX.3XXXX

Instrumented System Products

• Most sensors continually collect and communicate data to the centralized NEON database. Regular on-site maintenance may be impacted at sites where conditions result in restricted access.
• Includes DP IDs: DPX.0XXXX (except for DP4.00131, DP4.00132), subset of DP1.2XXXX
• Unplanned power and/or communications outages occur as a normal part of operations. Please note that communications outages typically result in delayed delivery of data rather than data loss.
• Sites currently experiencing power outages or site-wide data loss
  • D11 CLBJ (TIS) - HVAC repaired, data collection RESTORED 2022/08/03 
  • D11 OAES (TIS) - HVAC repaired, data collection RESTORED 2022/08/04 
• Sites currently experiencing communications outages:
  • D02 LEWI (AIS) - Communication RESTORED 2022/08/04 
  • D06 UKFS (TIS) - Communication RESTORED 2022/08/02 

Assignable Asset Status

Battelle staff are continuing to work remotely and the Assignable Asset team will continue to process all current requests and any new requests submitted during this time. PIs with specific questions or concerns about current or planned projects, please contact the Assignable Assets team.