WE PROPOSE TO LEVERAGE THE ONGOING AVIRIS-NG ACQUISITIONS IN THE ABOVE DOMAIN TO QUANTIFY TRAIT VARIATION BETWEEN AND WITHIN ECOSYSTEM TYPES AND ACROSS ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENTS IN THE REGION. FOCUSING ON LMA NITROGEN LIGNIN NON-STRUCTURAL CARBOHYDRATES CHLOROPHYLL AND POSSIBLY PHOSPHORUS THIS WORK WILL EXTEND AND VALIDATE EXISTING CROSS-BIOME IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY TRAIT MODELS (E.G. SINGH ET AL. 2015; SERBIN ET AL. 2015) AND WILL BUILD ON CONCURRENT WORK BEING DEVELOPED AT NEON DOMAINS IN ALASKA USING THE NEON AIRBORNE OBSERVATION PLATFORM (AOP). THE RESULTING MAPS (AND THEIR UNCERTAINTIES) WILL HELP FILL GAPS IN EXISTING FIELD SAMPLING NETWORKS AND EXPAND OUR GRASP OF THE FULL FUNCTIONAL DIMENSIONALITY OF ARCTIC AND BOREAL VEGETATION. AS PART OF THIS EFFORT WE WILL IMPLEMENT AN OPEN-SOURCE IMAGE PROCESSING WORKFLOW DEVELOPED COLLABORATIVELY BETWEEN UW-MADISON AND JPL ON THE RECORD OF ABOVE AVIRIS-NG IMAGERY TO PRODUCE FOR THE COMMUNITY A COMPLETE SET OF TOPOGRAPHICALLY AND BRDF CORRECTED AVIRIS-NG IMAGERY. OUR WORK WILL 1) YIELD A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THE VARIATION IN PLANT TRAITS THAT DRIVE ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING SUITABLE AS A FOUNDATION TO TRACK RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY AND CHANGE OF ARCTIC AND BOREAL ECOSYSTEMS AND 2) EXTEND EXISTING IMAGING SPECTROSCOPY ALGORITHMS ALREADY APPLIED AND VALIDATED FOR TEMPERATE AND SUB-BOREAL FORESTS AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS AND MEDITERRANEAN ECOSYSTEMS TO ARCTIC TUNDRA AND BOREAL FORESTS IN PREPARATION FOR RECOMMENDED FUTURE MISSIONS SUCH AS THE SURFACE BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY (SBG) CONCEPT IN THE RECENT DECADAL SURVEY. THIS SECOND RESULT REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT STEP IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF BROADLY APPLICABLE ALGORITHMS NEEDED TO IMPLEMENT SPECTROSCOPY-BASED TRAIT MAPPING (E.G. BY SBG) AT THE GLOBAL SCALE. COMPREHENSIVE MAPPING OF FUNCTIONAL TRAITS IN ARCTIC AND BOREAL SYSTEMS WILL ALSO SERVE TO INFORM MODELS PROJECTING FUTURE CHANGES IN THESE CRITICAL BIOMES.