|
|
|
| It's springtime and you know what that means: Time to take your new technology and head outside! | It's not a typo. Springtime is a critical time for observations taken by citizen scientists participating in Project BudBurst, which now calls NEON home base. Your observations can be submitted online, so take that iPad with you the next time you head outside to enjoy the spring season!
Project BudBurst, a citizen science project that collects user-contributed data nationwide on the timing of flowers, foliage and fruit, will serve as NEON's first prototype citizen science project. The move to NEON will enable the project to offer new and improved tools and resources to its users, including an enhanced web site and user-friendly mobile application, expected to be released by late spring.
Read the full story HERE.
|
|
A Primer on the NEON Sampling Design
| |
For a nationwide, long-term study of climate and ecology, location is key, and the locations of NEON's 20 core data collection sites play a critical role in the observatory's ability to address the broad ecology and climate questions it was uniquely designed to answer. Careful study of un-invaded and invaded sites and of wildland and disturbed sites can help illuminate complex relationships between ecosystems, invasive species and land use.
But selecting locations to meet major design requirements isn't easy. Ample computational power and scientific expertise have gone into generating the current plan for NEON site design, which is the product of dozens of meetings and workshops over the past five years and incorporates input from hundreds of scientists. The sites will have to anchor national, regional and local studies over NEON's planned 30-year lifetime.
Click HERE to read how it was done and to see the helpful animated explanation.
|
DAVE SCHIMEL TESTIFIES TO HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
| On March 11, Dave Schimel presented testimony on the Obama Administration's Fiscal Year 2012 request to Congress for NSF's MREFC (Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction) account. During his testimony, he highlighted the need for NEON and other large-scale observatories to provide environmental information that is critical in helping us manage our natural resources in a sustainable manner. This need is reflected in the growing marketplace for credible environmental information derived from standardized observations. In contributing data and resources that can be used for environmental decision making, NEON is well-positioned to contribute to a national investment strategy that will help fuel the nation's long-term competitiveness and innovation agenda.
>Read More |
NEON Joins With NOAA, Enhances Possibility for Environmental Observation Capability
|
NEON, Inc. has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) to establish a framework for discussion and possible future cooperation on environmental observing activities in the U.S.
The MOU states that providing the necessary breadth of environmental observations to characterize long-term climate trends requires a diverse and integrated set of observation systems working in tandem. In that pursuit of environmental knowledge and good science to capitalize on synergistic opportunities on behalf of the scientific community, the MOU enables opportunities to collaborate on mutual projects and activities, such as working to co-locate stations where possible, and sharing techniques, data, algorithms, and expertise.
|
|
The National Science Foundation and the FY12 Budget Request
| |
On February 14, 2011, the White House sent its FY12 budget request to Congress. The proposed budget maintains a doubling path for three key science agencies - NSF, the DOE Office of Science, and NIST - as outlined in the 2007 America COMPETES act that was re-authorized in December 2010. The 2012 budget for these three agencies is $13.9 billion, a 12.2% increase over FY10.
NSF Director Dr. Subra Suresh unveiled the President's FY12 budget for NSF on February 14, 2011 at NSF (Arlington, VA). The proposed NSF budget is $7.8 billion, a 13% increase over the FY10 omnibus level at $6.9 billion. (FY11 numbers are not available because on the on-going Continuing Resolution, hence increases in budget numbers are relative to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for FY10 signed into law on December 2009). The Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account sees an increase of 12.4% to $6.3 billion, Education & Human Resources (EHR) is increased by 4.4% to $911.2M, while the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account under which NEON construction is funded sees an increase of 91.6% to $224.7M. These increases should support approximately 2000 additional research grants over FY10, which translates to a 27.8% increase.
Dr. Suresh's NSF FY12 presentation discussed linking fundamental research to national challenges. Of particular relevance to NEON, the proposed budget "embraces the broadening scope of science, which enhanced observational capabilities make possible." Dr. Suresh further stipulates that the key to his vision of advancing NSF's mission is promoting the opportunities associated with the new "Era of Observation" and "Era of Data and Information". NEON was one of the observational capabilities highlighted in his presentation, together with other MREFC projects like the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), and others.
|
|
|
The Latest From the NEON Blog
| |
|
| We're Hiring |
And many MORE!
|
|
 |
 |
Copyright © 2009 NEON, Inc. All rights reserved.
NEON, Inc. | 1685 38th St., Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301 | (720) 746-4844
The National Ecological Observatory Network is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON, Inc. |
|
|
|
