Observatory Blog

By Michael Fitzgerald For most people, water is just something that comes out of a faucet in their house. We pay little attention to how it gets there

By Dr. Dave Schimel Last month, I participated in the first Principal Investigator meeting of NSF’s new Macrosystems Biology program. The NSF solicits

By Michael SanClements Just before I became a staff scientist at NEON, I and colleagues from the University of Colorado, Environmental Protection

In just under four months, civil construction will begin at the first NEON site. The timing couldn’t be better. Ecosystems are increasingly stressed

NEON will break ground on three sites starting early Summer 2012: Ordway-Swisher Biological Station in Florida, Harvard Forest in Massachusetts, and

By Jacob Parnell Even after more than a decade of working with microbes, I still find it amazing that more than 99% of the biodiversity on Earth is

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has completed the first of three high fidelity imaging spectrometers for use on the NEON project, known as the

The Long-term Ecological Research Network (LTER) and NEON are highly complementary networks that support ecological research in different ways, but

Imagine the scene: a sunny spring day on the plains of eastern Colorado, grasses gently swaying in the breeze, and a clear, gurgling stream winding its way across the landscape. Standing on the stream bank, suddenly there’s a loud splash, and you see a huge, dark shape gracefully plunge into the stream in front of you. Your mind irrationally flips through a list of mental images...

By Sandra Henderson Wildflowers, bats, and live music are just some of the pleasant things I associate with Austin, Texas. However, after recently

By Keith Krause It’s hot. Like, 100 degrees F hot. And I’m carrying around this heavy, ultra nerdy backpack (which engineering school definitely

NEON’s Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) team went to unusual heights in late September, taking only ground-based observations in the first of

By Kate Thibault The majestic, 500-pound lion lazing in the grass awaiting its next meal (provided generously by the females in his pride). The

Insects come in a variety of shapes and colors that dazzle our eyes. But there’s one insect that you almost always hear before you see it (if you see

Jeff Taylor wrote in his last post: When I originally heard that NEON was going to be the world’s first continental-scale observatory, I was a bit

By Jeff Taylor It’s been about 3 months since I started working in the Fundamental Instrument Group at NEON and it’s been a mix of exciting new

By Sandra Chung In the East Wing of NEON headquarters, a door marked “Data Center” opens to a chilly, white-walled room. Eight tall cabinets with

By Kate Thibault I love rats. Not the big, slimy ones that live in the sewers or stow away on ships and then wreak havoc on pristine island ecosystems

Scientists and decision makers will soon have access to information critical for understanding the effects of environmental change on a massive scale

By Sandra Chung Deep inside the technical facility at NEON’s headquarters, test design engineer Guillermo Oviedo walks into a room with solid black

NEON hosted a visit from Dr. Subra Suresh, the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), on Monday. Dr. Suresh and several colleagues also

NEON has recently completed a Pre-Construction review conducted by an NSF-convened panel on April 4-6, 2011. During this review, the panel carefully

On Friday, Dave Schimel presented testimony on the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2012 request to Congress for NSF’s MREFC (Major Research

By Sandra Chung

February 28, 2007 An initial group of 20 candidate core sites across the United States has been selected. A technical review committee of NEON senior

The Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and representatives of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) have completed two

NEON will adopt the "Minimum Information about an ENvironmental Sequence" (MIENS) specification for metadata associated with soil genomes. The MIENS

NEON has completed civil construction of its first production-grade prototype site, located near Sterling, Colorado. The site is located in an

Boulder Daily Camera Denver Business Journal

Prototyping events during the last three weeks have been integral to establishing a clear and consistent link between NEON organismal and airborne