Event - Workshop
The UTEP & NMSU Explore NEON Workshop
Nov 6-8, 2019
Please note the application period for this workshop is over and the workshop is now full.
This three-day workshop introduces participants to NEON, teaches them how to access and work with NEON data, and allows them to interact with NEON science staff to get assistance working on the data they are interested in using. The workshop includes hands-on, interactive instruction on how to access and work with NEON data, both through the NEON data portal and programmatically. The third day is a site visit to the NEON Jornada field site.
Participation & Registration
Workshop space is limited to 40 participants and the workshop hosts welcome applications from anyone with interest in using and learning more about NEON data (graduate students, postdocs, researchers, motivated undergraduates). First priority will be given to applicants be from the New Mexico State University, University of Texas – El Paso, or Jornada LTER research communities or from an organization or agency local to these communities.
The application period for this workshop is over and the workshop is now full.
Required Prior Knowledge
All coding instruction will be conducted in R and participants will be able to complete the workshop best if they have at least an introduction to coding. Participants without past experience working in a programming environment are encouraged to complete a basic introduction to R to understand the basics -- training options can be found on the Resources for Learning R page. Participants using other programming languages are welcome to attend, however, instruction and assistance in the language may not be available.
Workshop Schedule
Schedule subject to change.
Location:
Day 1: University of Texas at El Paso, Blumberg Auditorium (in the basement of the University Library)
Day 2: New Mexico State University, Wooton Hall 105
Day 3: Jornada Experimental Range (carpooling from UTEP and NMSU will be arranged)
Pre-Workshop
All participants will be asked to complete self-paced online tutorials before the workshop to have their laptops set up for the workshop and to learn about version control & online collaboration with GitHub.
Day 1: Wednesday 6 November
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 8:45 | Room open, participants should be ready for start at 9:00 |
| 9:00 | Welcome & Introductions |
| 9:30 | Exploring NEON & Accessing Data from the Data Portal |
| 10:30 | --------- BREAK --------- |
| 10:45 | Reproducible Workflows & Open Science |
| 12:00 | --------- LUNCH (provided) --------- |
| 13:00 | Access NEON Data using the neonUtilities Package |
| 15:00 | --------- BREAK --------- |
| 15:15 | Access & Explore NEON Data of Interest |
| 16:30 | End of Day |
Day 2: Thursday 7 November
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 8:45 | Room open, participants should be ready for start at 9:00 |
| 9:00 | Access & work with NEON spatial data |
| 10:45 | --------- BREAK --------- |
| 11:00 | NEON Data Processing & Data QA/QC |
| 12:00 | --------- LUNCH (provided) --------- |
| 13:00 | NEON Data Activities |
| 14:00 | --------- BREAK --------- |
| 14:15 | NEON Data Activities cont. |
| 16:00 | NEON Assignable Assets |
| 16:15 | Workshop Questions & Evaluation |
| 16:30 | End of Day |
Day 3: Friday 8 November
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 8:00 | Meet at Wooten Hall (NMSU) for carpooling |
| AM | NEON Jornada Field Site Tour |
| ~1:00 | Return to Wooten Hall (NMSU) |
Workshop Hosts
- Marguerite Mauritz, Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Texas El Paso
- Sarah McCord, Ecologist, USDA ARS located at New Mexico State University.
Workshop Instructors
- Claire Lunch; @dr_lunch, Research Scientist, Data Science; NEON program, Battelle
- Megan A. Jones; @meganahjones, Research Scientist, Science Education; NEON program, Battelle
Please get in touch with the instructors prior to the workshop with any questions.
Additional NEON scientists will be active in the Explore NEON Workshop.
Twitter?
Please tweet using #NEONData & @NEON_Sci during this workshop!
Before the Workshop
To participant in this workshop, you will need a laptop with the most current version of R, and preferably RStudio, loaded on your computer. Prior to the workshop you should have R and, preferably, RStudio installed on your computer. If you have no prior experience using R or a programming language, please consider taking the time to do a brief introduction to R. Suggestions are provided on Resources for Learning R.
Setting Up R & RStudio
Windows R/RStudio Setup
- Download R for Windows here
- Run the .exe file that was just downloaded
- Go to the RStudio Download page
- Under Installers select RStudio X.XX.XXX - Windows Vista/7/8/10
- Double click the file to install it
Once R and RStudio are installed, click to open RStudio. If you don't get any error messages you are set. If there is an error message, you will need to re-install the program.
Mac R/RStudio Setup
- Go to CRAN and click on Download R for (Mac) OS X
- Select the .pkg file for the version of OS X that you have and the file will download.
- Double click on the file that was downloaded and R will install
- Go to the RStudio Download page
- Under Installers select RStudio 0.98.1103 - Mac OS X XX.X (64-bit) to download it.
- Once it's downloaded, double click the file to install it
Once R and RStudio are installed, click to open RStudio. If you don't get any error messages you are set. If there is an error message, you will need to re-install the program.
Linux R/RStudio Setup
- R is available through most Linux package managers. You can download the binary files for your distribution from CRAN. Or you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu run
sudo apt-get install r-baseand for Fedora runsudo yum install R). - To install RStudio, go to the RStudio Download page
- Under Installers select the version for your distribution.
- Once it's downloaded, double click the file to install it
Once R and RStudio are installed, click to open RStudio. If you don't get any error messages you are set. If there is an error message, you will need to re-install the program.
Install R Packages
Please have these packages installed and updated prior to the start of the workshop.
- neonUtilities:
install.packages("neonUtilities"); to access NEON data specific functions - raster:
install.packages("raster"); to work with raster files in R - rhdf5:
install.packages("BiocManager"),BiocManager::install("rhdf5"); to work with HDF5 files in R - devtools:
install.packages("devtools"); required to install using theinstall_github()function. - geoNEON:
install_github("NEONScience/NEON-geolocation/geoNEON”); to get specific location data for NEON data and samples. You must havedevtoolsinstalled and running (library(devtools)) prior to installing withinstall_github(). For further directions, see the start of the Use the neonUtilities Package to Access NEON Data tutorial.
If you want to install all of them, you can use the following code.
install.packages("neonUtilities")
install.packages("raster")
install.packages("BiocManager")
BiocManager::install("rhdf5")
install.packages("devtools")
library(devtools)
install_github("NEONScience/NEON-geolocation/geoNEON")
Introduction to NEON
Please complete this short tutorial that provides an introduction to NEON and keep your questions handy for discussion during the workshop.
Tutorial: Introduction to the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
Version Control & Online Collaboration with GitHub
Please complete the self-paced online training on Version Control and Online Collaboration using GitHub prior to the workshop so that we can use these tools during the workshop. This activity is option and those familiar with the tool will have the opportunity to use GitHub for online code collaboration during the workshop during the Data Activities section.
Series: Version Control with GitHub
Location:
United States