Tutorials

Banner for tutorials

Looking to improve your data skills using tools like R or Python? Want to learn more about working with a specific NEON data product? NEON develops online tutorials to help you improve your research. These self-paced tutorials are designed for you to used as standalone help on a single topic or as a series to learn new techniques.

Code for most script based tutorials can be downloaded at the end of the tutorial. Source files can also be found on GitHub. If you are interested in contributing a tutorial to this collection, please reach out using the Contact Us form, and we can guide you through the process of submitting resources to the GitHub repository.

All materials are freely available for you to use and reuse. We suggest the following citation for tutorials: 
[AUTHOR(S), NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network)]. Data Tutorial: [TUTORIAL NAME]. [URL] (accessed [DATE OF ACCESS]). See Citation Guidelines for examples, and for guidance in citing data and code.

Tutorials

Start Tutorial

Vector 00: Open and Plot Shapefiles in R - Getting Started with Point, Line and Polygon Vector Data

30 minutes
This spatial data tutorial explains the how to open and plot shapefiles containing point, line and polygon vector data in R.
Start Tutorial

Vector 01: Explore Shapefile Attributes & Plot Shapefile Objects by Attribute Value in R

30 minutes
This tutorial provides an overview of how to locate and query shapefile attributes as well as subset shapefiles by specific attribute values in R. It also covers plotting multiple shapefiles by attribute and building a custom plot legend.
Start Tutorial

Vector 02: Plot Multiple Shapefiles and Create Custom Legends in Base Plot in R

30 minutes
This tutorial provides an overview of how to create a a plot of multiple shapefiles using base R plot. It also explores adding a legend with custom symbols that match your plot colors and symbols.
Start Tutorial

Vector 03: When Vector Data Don't Line Up - Handling Spatial Projection & CRS in R

30 minutes
This tutorial will cover how to identify the CRS of a spatial vector object in R. It will also explore differences in units associated with different projections and how to reproject data using spTransform in R. Spatial data need to be in the same projection in order to successfully map and process them in non-gui tools such as R.
Start Tutorial

Vector 04: Convert from .csv to a Shapefile in R

45 minutes
This tutorial covers how to convert a .csv file that contains spatial coordinate information into a spatial object in R. We will then export the spatial object as a Shapefile for efficient import into R and other GUI GIS applications including QGIS and ArcGIS
Start Tutorial

Vector 05: Crop Raster Data and Extract Summary Pixels Values From Rasters in R

1 hour
This tutorial covers how to modify (crop) a raster extent using the extent of a vector shapefile. It also covers extracting pixel values from defined locations stored in a spatial object.
Start Tutorial

Version Control with GitHub

This series teaches why version control is important and how to use a common version control tool, GitHub. GitHub also allows for collaboration within the environment.
Series
7 part series
Start Tutorial

Visualize Elevation Changes Caused by the 2013 Colorado Floods using NEON LiDAR Data in R

1 hour
This tutorial uses Digital Terrain Models derived from
Start Tutorial

What is a CHM, DSM and DTM? About Gridded, Raster LiDAR Data

0.25 - 0.5 Hours
Understand LiDAR data product formats and learn the basics of how a LiDAR data are processed.
Start Tutorial

Wildfire Change Exploration Using AOP Reflectance and Canopy Height Data in GEE

45 minutes
Explore pre- and post- wildfire imagery at GRSM, looking at differences in canopy height and Normalize Burn Ratio
Start Tutorial

Work with NEON OS & IS Data - Plant Phenology & Temperature

Learn to work with NEON plant phenology (Observational System) and single aspirated air temperature (Instrumented System) data products.
Series
3 part series
Start Tutorial

Work With NEON's Plant Phenology Data

1 hour
Learn to work with NEON plant phenology observation data (NEON.DP1.10055).
Start Tutorial

Work with NEON's Single-Aspirated Air Temperature Data

1 hour
This tutorial demonstrates how to work with NEON single-aspirated air temperature data. Specific tasks include conversion to POSIX date/time class, subsetting by date, and plotting the data.