Workshops-NEON: Training in Scientific Discoveries with NEON's AOP; Boise State University; Spring, 2016 - Early - 2017

A series of three hands-on workshops will be organized to foster and coordinate research that blends data from the Airborne Observing Platform (AOP) of the new NSF National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and associated ground data from local field sites. The workshops will focus on remote sensing principles, development of remote sensing data products, and field data integration and validation to address specific research questions in the biophysical sciences with NEON data. Experts in the focus areas and in conducting hands-on training will lead the workshops. NEON data will be used for the workshops and tutorials will be made available to NEON to post online. The workshops are designed to reach approximately 75 in-person participants each, along with hundreds of scientists via dissemination of the training materials online. Organizers will encourage attendance of underrepresented minorities, women, and persons with disabilities and early career participants. This training will assist with future collaborations and coordination among researchers and prepare scientists with the skills to help describe changes in U.S. ecosystems across a wide range of space and time.

Three themes will guide the three workshops: LiDAR processing and analysis, hyper spectral processing and analysis, and the use of remotely sensed data products for ecosystem modeling. The workshops will bring together biophysical scientists and experts in remote sensing and ecosystem modeling that will encourage development of a range of scaled data products to enable NEON-based research questions and for use by the broader scientific community.