Integrated Phenology Research and Education

Utah State University, Logan UT

Investigators

Abstract

In response to an Announcement of Opportunity for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE) this project is designed to meet GLOBE goals and objectives of linking scientists and schoolchildren in a global information network with the ultimate goal of better understanding Earth's environment and changes that take place within it. This project will support, develop, and promote the phenology protocol for use at GLOBE schools in order to detect the annual waves of plant green-up and senescence that occur as photosynthesis becomes active and then dormant with the cycling of the seasons. While satellites can detect such waves, there is very little data on what exactly the satellite derived greenness index is actually indicating, especially in areas like the dry tropical and semi-arid regions. This project will conduct phenology measurements near the existing network of carbon flux-measuring eddy covariance towers and also in urban and other data-sparse areas. A variety of remote sensing algorithms and processing techniques will be compared with the GLOBE phenology data, to allow a more accurate interpretation of this remotely sensed data. Scientists will benefit from improving knowledge of integrated phenological processes, and students will benefit from conducting real research with their own and others' data. This project is being jointly supported by NASA's Terrestrial Ecosystems Program. %%%