Construction and Operations of the National Ecological Observatory

国家生态观测站网络（NEON）是一个大陆研究平台，旨在将我们对生物圈的了解扩展到区域和大陆尺度。通过遥感、原位观测、实验、合成和建模，NEON 将为研究人员提供独特的能力，量化调节生物圈的强弱力量，并预测其对气候和土地利用变化的响应。 NEON 基础设施将包括现场部署的仪表塔和传感器阵列、遥感功能、尖端实验室仪器、自然历史档案以及数据分析、建模、可视化和预测设施，所有这些都通过网络基础设施骨干网联网。基础设施将部署在美国大陆、阿拉斯加、夏威夷和波多黎各，采用统计确定的设计，按气候和土地利用分层。 NEON 将创建的知识库，其实时和持续集成的数据、模拟和观察能力及其网络通信将成为正式和非正式教育和培训的资产。 NEON网关将为支持非正式公共教育提供资源，并为公民积极参与科学研究提供机会。该奖项是国家生态观测站网络建设和运营的管理框架。

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental research platform designed to extend our understanding of the biosphere to regional and continental scales. Through remote sensing, in-situ observation, experimentation, synthesis, and modeling, NEON will provide researchers with a unique capability to quantify the strong and weak forces regulating the biosphere and predict its response to climate and landuse change. NEON infrastructure will include field deployed instrumented towers and sensor arrays, remote sensing capabilities, cutting-edge laboratory instrumentation, natural history archives, and facilities for data analysis, modeling, visualization, and forecasting, all networked through a cyberinfrastructure backbone. Infrastructure will be deployed across the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico using a statistically determined design, stratified by climate and landuse. The knowledge base NEON will create, its real time and continuous integrated data, simulation and observation capabilities, and its networked communication will be an asset for formal and informal education and training. A NEON gateway will provide resources to support informal public education and provide opportunities for citizens to actively participate in scientific investigations.This award is the adminstrative framework for the construction and operations of the National Ecological Observatory Network.