Release 2026
Release Tag: RELEASE-2026
Release Date: January 26, 2026
Contents: JSON manifest
R neonUtilities: use v3.0.2 or higher
Python neonutilities: use v1.2.0 or higher
RELEASE-2026 includes data products annotated by DOIs.
- RELEASE-2026 includes Instrumented Systems (IS) data through June 2025, and Observational Systems (OS) and Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) data through December 2024.
- Data products that are exclusively hosted by an external repository are excluded. These are:
- Phenocam data products: Phenology images (DP1.00033.001), Land-water interface images (DP1.20002.001), and Snow depth and understory phenology images (DP1.00042.001);
- AERONET product Spectral sun photometer - calibrated sky radiances (DP1.00043.001)
- Gap-filled products hosted by AmeriFlux, including Temporally interpolated soil temperature (DP2.00006.001), Temporally interpolated shortwave and longwave radiation (net radiometer) (DP2.00020.001), and Temporally interpolated triple aspirated tower temperature (DP2.00023.001).
- Data products that are exclusively downloadable via another data product are associated with the DOI of the downloadable data product.
- Some data products or subsets of data products (certain date ranges or field sites) have been excluded. Data may be available in excluded products and time periods; these data are provisional, and subject to change. Please refer to the Data Exclusions table below.
- AOP data products will be exclusively available in this release until December 2026. The DOIs for the AOP data products in previous releases have been tombstoned.
Data Exclusions
| Data Product ID | Data Product Name | What is excluded for reasons other than general lag time | Reason for exclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| DP*.300**.002 | All AOP Bidirectional Reflectance Data Products (revision 002) | All sites, 2022-01 through 2024-12 | Bidirectional reflectance data for AOP sites collected between 2022-2025 were processed starting in Spring 2024. A minor bug in the BRDF correction was discovered in late 2026, which caused some spectral anomalies in a small percentage of pixels in water bodies and shaded areas. Leaving BRDF-corrected datasets provisional to allow for data quality updates. |
| DP1.00006.001 | Precipitation | All sites & years | This product has been deprecated. |
| DP1.10020.001 | Ground beetle sequences DNA barcode | All sites, 2023-01 through 2024-12 | 2023 and 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.10022.001 | Ground beetles sampled from pitfall traps | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 taxonomic identifications incomplete |
| DP1.10038.001 | Mosquito sequences DNA barcode | All sites, 2023-11 through 2024-12 | 2024 and late 2023 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.10064.002 | Rodent pathogen status, tick-borne | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 pathogen analyses incomplete |
| DP1.10076.001 | Small mammal sequences DNA barcode | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.10107.001 | Soil microbe metagenome sequences | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.20032.001 | Shortwave and longwave radiation above water on-buoy (net radiometer) | FLNT 2025-04 throuh 2025-06; LIRO, 2024-03 through 2024-11 | The incoming and outgoing data appear switched and may be able to be fixed |
| DP1.20048.001 | Discharge field collection | All sites, 2024-10 through 2024-12 | Discharge-related data products are released by water year |
| DP1.20055.001 | Water temperature and conductivity in lakes from subsurface moored array of sensors | BARC, SUGG, PRPO, PRLA, all dates | Metadata under review for recent deployments and under ice conditions that cannot be confirmed until the spring |
| DP1.20126.001 | Macroinvertebrate metabarcoding | All sites, 2023-01 through 2024-12 | 2023 and 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.20163.001 | Periphyton, seston, and phytoplankton chemical properties | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 laboratory analyses incomplete |
| DP1.20166.001 | Periphyton, seston, and phytoplankton collection | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 taxonomic identifications on hold |
| DP1.20221.001 | Zooplankton metabarcoding | All sites, 2023-01 through 2024-12 | 2023 and 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.20261.001 | Photosynthetically active radiation below water surface | LIRO, 2025-05 through 2025-06; TOMB, 2023-07 through 2023-11 | The incoming and outgoing data appear switched and may be able to be fixed |
| DP1.20267.001 | Gauge height | All sites, 2024-10 through 2024-12 | Discharge-related data products are released by water year |
| DP1.20279.001 | Benthic microbe metagenome sequences | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.20281.001 | Surface water microbe metagenome sequences | All sites, 2024-01 through 2024-12 | 2024 sequencing incomplete |
| DP1.30001.001 | LiDAR slant range waveform | HOPB 2016-08, HOPB 2017-08, SRER 2017-08, WREF 2017-06 | HOPB 2016 & 2017: data incorrectly referenced as ellipsoidal heights instead of orthometric (Geoid12a) heights; SRER and WREF 2017: partially missing data. |
| DP1.30010.001, DP3.30010.001, DP1.30003.001, DP3.30015.001, DP3.30024.001, DP3.30025.001 | All AOP Lidar and Camera Data Products | ORNL 2017-06 | Re-processed to correct a minor quality issue in the lidar data. Withholding for further review. |
| DP4.00130.001 | Continuous discharge | All sites, 2024-10 through 2025-06 | Discharge-related data products are released by water year |
| DP4.00133.001 | Stage-discharge rating curves | All sites, 2024-10 through 2024-12 | Discharge-related data products are released by water year |
| DP4.00200.001 | Bundled data products - Eddy covariance | BARR, 2017-05 through 2017-08; BART, 2016-12 through 2017-01; BONA, 2017-10; CLBJ, 2017-09 through 2017-10; CPER, 2017-11; DELA, 2017-02; DSNY, 2017-02; JORN, 2017-03 through 2017-08; LAJA, 2017-08 to 2018-04; NOGP, 2017-09; ORNL, 2017-03 through 2017-06; SERC, 2017-03 through 2017-05; TEAK, 2018-06; UNDE, 2017-02; WREF, 2017-09 through 2018-02; YELL, 2017-08 |
Site start dates have been consistently defined in this release. The excluded site-months are prior to a site passing initial operation review or prior to installation of the 3D sonic anemometer. |
Changes between RELEASE-2025 and RELEASE-2026
- For all OS data products, data quality improvement and error correction are continuous and ongoing processes. Routine data entry errors (such as transcription errors, duplicate records, or adjusted spatial coordinates) have been corrected where possible. Due to the large volume of data (>20 million data records), these corrections are not described individually. The table below describes significant changes to data products between releases.
- Isolated sites and time periods for most IS products were reprocessed to incorporate corrections to sensor installation periods, geolocation data, and manual quality flags. The table below describes significant changes to specific data products between releases.
- For all AOP data products, data quality improvement and error corrections are ongoing processes. The bulk of the updates for the 2026 Release are related to L3 lidar geotiff standardization, fixing flightline adjustment issues for the lidar data, fixing ortho-rectification issues in the camera data, lidar metadata standardization, and renaming files that did not follow the standard convention. Not all corrections are described individually, but the table below summarizes significant changes to AOP data products between releases. For more information on the AOP 2026 Release Updates, please refer to AOP Data Availability Notification – Release 2026.
| Data Product ID | Data Product Name | Summary of changes between RELEASE-2025 and RELEASE-2026 |
|---|---|---|
| DP1.00006.001 | Precipitation | NEON has removed all data from DP1.00006.001 from RELEASE-2026 and all future releases. This product is now deprecated, and users are directed to the new products DP1.00044.001, DP1.00045.001 and DP1.00046.001 for precipitation data. Data for DP1.00006.001 will remain available in previous Data Releases, but going forward, all precipitation data will be delivered in the new data products. |
| DP1.00022.001 | Shortwave Radiation (primary pyranometer) | Product has been reprocessed using NEON’s new instrument processing pipeline. Notably, a set of quality metrics (shadowPassQM, shadowFailQM, shadowNAQM) were added that reflect instances where the sensors were shaded by obstructions. The final quality flag is also raised during these instances. Additionally, informational quality metrics indicating the use of a valid sensor calibration (“validCalPassQM”, “validCalFailQM”, and “validCalNAQM” columns) are now populated in the expanded download package. These do not impact the final quality flag. |
| DP1.10026.001 | Plant foliar traits | For woody vegetation samples, entries in the subplotID field in the cfc_fieldData table were removed. In the cfc_chlorophyll table, a new field called chlorophyllPrepMethod was added to the data and back-filled as 'hand chop' for all samples collected prior to June 2025. Also in the chlorophyll table, quality assurance reporting was updated, with the field relativeAccuracyScale no longer populated and instead reporting accuracy for a purchased standard in the field chlQAMaterialQF and for absorbance filters of known wavelength in absorbanceStandardQF. In the cfc_carbonNitrogen table, the lab that analyzes carbon and nitrogen concentration and stable isotopes changed, and interlab comparison suggested this may impact delta-15N values up to 0.5 per mill. |
| DP1.10033.001 | Litterfall and fine woody debris production and chemistry | In the ltr_litterCarbonNitrogen table, the lab that analyzes carbon and nitrogen concentration and stable isotopes changed, and inter-lab comparison suggested this may impact delta-15N values up to 0.5 per mill. |
| DP1.10043.001 | Mosquitoes sampled from CO2 traps | The archiveID was replaced with a poolSampleID in the subsampling table and a poolSampleID value was added to the archive_pooling table as the primary key that can be used to link the subsampling table data with the archive_pooling data. |
| DP1.10067.001 | Root biomass and chemistry, periodic | In the bbc_rootChemistry table, the lab that analyzes carbon and nitrogen concentration and stable isotopes changed, and inter-lab comparison suggested this may impact delta-15N values up to 0.5 per mill. |
| DP1.10072.001 | Small mammal box trapping | A "gridCompletion" field was added to the per_plotnightnight table to describe the grid setting and processing completion status for each unique nightuid. A new table, mam_voucherIdentificationHistory was created to track past determinations for the mam_voucher table. |
| DP1.10081.001 | Soil microbe community composition | Unlabeled duplicates from different sequencing runs were removed, and the sequencing run identifier was added to the table of taxonomic identifications for clarity and smoother data use. |
| DP1.10081.002 | Soil microbe community taxonomy | Same new fields as described above for benthic microbe community taxonomy: new fields in the mct_soilPerSampleTaxonomy_16S and mct_soilPerSampleTaxonomy_ITS tables |
| DP1.10086.001 | Soil physical and chemical properties, periodic | Following examination of site precipitation patterns, samplingTiming entries in the sls_soilCoreCollection table were switched for transition season 1 and transition season 2 bouts in CLBJ, wetDryTransition now comes before and dryWetTransition comes after the peakGreenness bout. In the same table, 44 sampling impractical records were added for BARR 2022 data to document missed nitrogen transformation sampling when incubations could not be installed. |
| DP1.10092.001 | Tick pathogen status | All untested tick pathogen records (e.g., those with a blank or NA testResult value) have been removed from the dataset so that only tested pathogen records are reported. |
| DP1.10098.001 | Vegetation structure | eventID, subplotID, and nestedSubplotID fields were removed from vst_mappingandtagging_pub table since they do not cleanly match the resolution of the data in the table. heightQualifier and measurementStrategy fields were added to vst_apparentindividual_pub. Longstanding D05 and D06 multiplot duplicates were resolved. |
| DP1.10107.001 | Soil microbe metagenome sequences | Same changes as Benthic microbe metagenome sequences (see above): two new fields in the mms_metagenomeSequencing table |
| DP1.10111.001 | Site management and event reporting | Grazing records were backfilled at LAJA and TEAK. |
| DP1.20055.001 | Water temperature and conductivity in lakes from subsurface moored array of sensors | Newly published data product that includes measurements of water temperature and specific conductance in lakes from subsurface moored array of sensors. Temperature and specific conductance are measured at specific depths, which are monitored via a pressure transducer. The subsurface mooring enables continuous winter monitoring beneath ice at lake sites that freeze. During the summer or at lakes that don't freeze, the subsurface mooring enables better coverage of the water column than the surface moored temperature chain alone. |
| DP1.20066.001 | Aquatic plant bryophyte macroalgae clip harvest | New "sample" and "target" latitude and longitude fields were added to the apl_clipHarvest table to more accurately describe random sampling locations in lakes and rivers. All "decimal" and "alt" location fields are no longer published. Three apc_voucher tables are now being published in this product. |
| DP1.20063.001 | Aquatic plant bryophyte chemical properties | New "sample" and "target" latitude and longitude fields were added to the apl_clipHarvest table to more accurately describe random sampling locations in lakes and rivers. All "decimal" and "alt" location fields are no longer published. Three apc_voucher tables are now being published in this product. |
| DP1.20086.001 | Benthic microbe community composition | Unlabeled duplicates from different sequencing runs were removed, and the sequencing run identifier was added to the table of taxonomic identifications for clarity and smoother data use. |
| DP1.20086.002 | Benthic microbe community taxonomy | Several new fields were added to the per sample 16s/ITS taxonomy tables (mct_benthicPerSampleTaxonomy_16S and mct_benthicPerSampleTaxonomy_ITS). There is now a field representing the confidence of taxonomy assignment at each major taxonomic rank (kingdom/division, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species). The sequencerRunID field has also been added to this table to avoid confusion for samples sequenced more than once. |
| DP1.20107.001 | Fish electrofishing, gill netting, and fyke netting counts | Fish data were substantially overhauled between early 2024 and late 2025. In addition to routine data entry correction, a large number of duplicates were removed and inconsistencies between tables were resolved. Inconsistencies had affected the eventIDs and dates for the same events across tables. |
| DP1.20120.001 | Macroinvertebrate collection | Table inv_perVial no longer published, however, reference vial information has been added to inv_taxonomyProcessed and inv_taxonomyRaw. Vial location information relating to inv_perSample has been moved to inv_taxonomyProcessed and inv_taxonomyRaw. |
| DP1.20141.001 | Surface water microbe community composition | Unlabeled duplicates from different sequencing runs were removed, and the sequencing run identifier was added to the table of taxonomic identifications for clarity and smoother data use. |
| DP1.20191.001 | Riparian vegetation % cover | Legacy data duplicates from 2019 through 2024 were resolved. Named locations at BLWA and FLNT were corrected to reflect the locations observed on the ground. |
| DP1.20194.001 | Sediment chemical and physical properties | Concentrations were edited in the asc_externalLabData:analyteConcentration field to reflect the corrected dilution factors for the following entries in the analyte field: Alkalinity (CaCO3), HCO3, CO3, OH. |
| DP1.20219.001 | Zooplankton collection | New field estConcentratedSampleVolume added to zoo_taxonomyProcessed and zoo_taxonomyRaw, dilutionFactor and zooVolumePerBottle removed. New data are no longer populated in zoo_perVial. |
| DP1.20264.001 | Temperature at Specific Depth in Surface Water | Product has been reprocessed using NEON’s new instrument processing pipeline. Notably, a final quality flag is now included in the one-minute data. Quality metrics indicating the use of a suspect sensor calibration (“suspectCalPassQM”, “suspectCalFailQM”, and “suspectCalNAQM” columns) are now populated in the expanded download package. These do not impact the final quality flag. |
| DP1.20275.001 | Riparian composition and structure | Legacy data duplicates from 2019 through 2024 were resolved. Named locations at BLWA and FLNT were corrected to reflect the locations observed on the ground. |
| DP1.20279.001 | Benthic microbe metagenome sequences | As part of the ongoing collaboration between NEON and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), all NEON metagenome data is being processed through the JGI data analysis pipeline. In order to help users connect to the JGI analyses of NEON samples, two new fields were added to the mms_benthicMetagenomeSequencing table. These fields correspond to the JGI Genome Online Database (GOLD) biosample ID (goldBiosampleID) and sequencing project ID (goldSeqProjectID). This applies to new as well as older legacy data. |
| DP1.20281.001 | Surface water microbe metagenome sequences | Same changes as Benthic microbe metagenome sequences (see above): two new fields in the mms_swMetagenomeSequencing table |
| DP1.30001.001 | Lidar Slant Range Waveform 2016-2017 | Pulsewaves files renamed to follow standard naming convention. |
| DP3.30015.001, DP3.30024.001, DP3.30025.001 | L3 Discrete Lidar (DTM/DSM, CHM, and Slope/Aspect) | Lidar L3 geotiff files adjusted to be consistent with the current file format (generated with the Python gdal library with standardized tiff tags and LZW compression). Lidar metadata shapefiles re-generated; now derived from the L3 geotiffs and available as a single merged file (in kml, shp, and geojson formats). GRSM 2017-10, NOGP 2017-06 re-processed to include partially missing data. Sites with horizontal offset in parts of the DTM re-processed (DELA, LENO, TALL, OAES, PRIN, BLUE 2017-05). |
| DP1.30003.001, DP1.30010.001, DP3.30010.001, DP3.30015.001, DP3.30024.001, DP3.30025.001 | Discrete Lidar and Camera (L1 and L3) | Geoid 12a vertical datum applied to HOPB 2016-08 and 2017-08. Flight line vertical adjustments improved for JERC 2014-05, CHEQ (STEI) 2016-09, 2017-08, 2019-06, MLBS 2017-08, BONA 2018-08, JORN 2019-08. Sites re-processed to include missing data for SRER 2017-08 and WREF 2017-06. |
| DP4.00001.001 | Summary Weather Statistics | Following the migration of Shortwave Radiation (primary pyranometer), DP1.00022.001, to NEON’s new data processing system, shortwave radiation tables were removed from Summary Weather Statistics, DP4.00001.001. The full data history of shortwave radiation tables as well as weighing gauge precipitation tables is expected to be re-included in Summary Weather Statistics in RELEASE-2027. |
| DP4.00130.001 | Continuous discharge | Beginning with water year 2022 (data collected after Oct 1, 2021), data are averaged to 15-minute intervals. A new table, csd_15_min has been created. |
| DP4.00131.001 | Stream morphology map | The prefix "surveyPoint" was added to existing spatial data fields. A new table, geo_benchmarkLocations, was added to record the benchmark points in the survey. |
| DP4.00132.001 | Bathymetric and morphological maps | A new field, assignedHabitatTypeQM, was added as part of the processing calculations to summarize the percentage of ground truth assessments that match the assigned habitat type value. Added new spatial data uncertainty fields and added the prefix "surveyPoint" to existing spatial data fields. |
| DP4.00200.001 | Bundled data products - eddy covariance | (1) Fixed timestamp offset corrections for edge cases in all data products from Picarro instruments, including CH₄ concentration (DP1.00030.001), atmospheric CO₂ isotopes (DP1.00036.001), and atmospheric H₂O isotopes (DP1.00037.001). (2) Updated science review flags (qfSciRevw) in DP4.00200.001, where the default value is NaN; flags can now be raised to 0 (indicating suspicious data) or 1 (indicating bad data). (3) Added tower shadow flags for winds coming from a 30° exclusion window directly behind the 3D sonic anemometer. These flags were implemented in: • 3D wind speed, direction, and sonic temperature (DP1.00007) • Turbulent flux data products: • Sensible heat flux (DP4.00002, fluxTemp) • Momentum flux (DP4.00007, fluxMome) • Carbon dioxide flux (DP4.00067, fluxCo2) • Latent heat flux (DP4.00137, fluxH2o) |